Stella Glow: A Hero Lost in Time
by Pizza Tactician
Summary: Having slept for 1000 years, Elcrest awakens from his slumber. Armed with the experience of his failures, the Conductor assembles his choir of witches to face the Mother on the moon and rid the world's curse. Can his new hope shine past the same darkness that robbed him? Or would the dark side of the moon beget his soul once again? (Bad Grammar incoming, AU story, Obvious Spoilers)
1. Prologue: The Awakening

Hey Guys, this is my first contribution to both this site and Stella Glow fanbase! I accept opinions and criticism in the reviews in hopes of becoming a better writer! Please refrain from saying rude or inappropriate comments in this story, i'm a human being and have feelings too!

Disclaimer: I do not own Stella Glow and any of its characters, they belong to imageepoch. Please support the official release

A/N: Chapter has been fixed and updated!

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Prologue: The Awakening

A great battle was warring somewhere. It was not in the deepest reach of the forests. It was not in the long and narrow caves, not the rapids of ocean, and not in the open spaced plains. No, it somewhere else. It wasn't on earth but above the skies, high above this flourishing sphere of life. It was in space, on the moon itself. Branches of immense size were grown down towards the earth in a twisted manner. They attached and anchored themselves on the earth as they kept the planet itself in a fixed position. The moon itself was the source of these branches and inside held a great power.

"How can it gain it personality!?" A voice said, "It's just a system!"

"C'mon _, let's play…"a childish, yet sinister voice said. "I want to play with you…"

"Auuuggghhhhhhh!" a voice in pain shouted, they were burning and covered in black flames.

"_!" Another voice shouted, unable to believe what happened to them.

Thud!

Someone was push to the floor and another voice erupted in pain. "auuuugggghhhhh!" It was a different voice and they too, were in pain.

"_, what're you doing!?" A voice questioned. "Y-you have to get o-out of here…!"

The previous voice responded. "I'm g-giving you enough time to escaped it!"

They were all shocked at they just did to sacrifice themselves to save the rest of them.

"C'mon _, let's get out of here!"

"O-okay!" a new voice said.

Everyone teleported away from the place except the one who made the sacrifice. There was only silence besides the popping and crackling of the supposed flame.

A voice broke the silence. "If you're going to kill...then do it already!" The voice demanded.

"Oh, I won't kill you," the childish voice said. "I'm going to keep you as my pretty playdoll…"

A childish laugh fills the air

…

A boy woke up with his body submerged in a body of water that was clear as glass. He laid there for while as he took in his surroundings and took in slow but deep breaths of the fresh warm air. The boy thought of staying there and enjoying the tranquility of the environment. He wanted to just lie there as long he stayed comfortable.

He blinked and paused his thoughts as he remembered something. _What am I doing here? Why am I submerged in water? What was I doing?_ The boy asked himself these questions and began digging within his mind to search for an answer. _Ah yes, I fought and lost. I remember getting caught in those flames and then was put to rest here to purify but for how long?_

Deep in thought, he didn't notice someone was at the shore of water who was in utter shock of what they discovered. The figure was a girl. She was no more than her late teens and had short red hair and green eyes with a semi pale complexion. She wore a dress that green on top and from below the waste was silky white with plain old brown shoes.

Broken from his train of thought, he was grabbed by the arm and pulled across the water. He thought he was being pulled down deeper into the water. He was only looking up and begin to struggle, kicking, and flailing about.

 _Maybe that's why I'm in the water, someone was trying to drag me deeper into the water and drown me!_ He thought to himself as he fought and struggled to make the unknown hand let go, but to no avail. _C'mon, c'mon! Let go of me! I just woke up and I have don't understand what's happening right now, what is going on!?_ He thought frustratingly to himself.

Eventually, he ran out of strength to fight back and decided to quickly rest only for a moment. He stilled himself and took breaths to regain his strength. He began to struggle again in hopes they let go.

Thud! His head hit a rock on the shallow parts of the water. Was he not being dragged towards the bottom? Did he somehow win this battle or did his "assailant" just give up on trying to drag him. He thought about this for a moment before meeting face to face with a towel and was held up by his back.

"Wh-" he said before being cut off from said towel.

"Don't worry, lemme dry your head first." A concerned voice said.

The boy sat there for quite a bit and was confused about what was going on. He wakes up in a pond, now he got pulled to the surface and is getting his face dried by a stranger? _Honestly, how strange is this?_ He thought to himself. While she dried him off, he began to wonder into his thoughts again. He tried to look for the answer to his own question earlier.

"There, all done!" she said with some enthusiasm as he snapped back into reality.

The towel stopped rubbing his head and was pulled back. The boy opened his eyes and looked up to meet the girl who smiled at him. It was the same girl that he didn't notice till now, and he wondered if she was the one who took him out of the water.

"Uh...hello…" the boy said simply, he continued to look into the girl's eyes and wonder if she met him before.

She broke him out of his gaze with a question. "What's your name?"

"My...name?" the boy questioned. "Um, my name is…"

He paused for a moment. _Curses, what was my name again?_ He began to dig into his mind again to find what his name was _._ Like clockwork, he began listing names in his head. He discarded ones that didn't sound like his name. _No, not this name, not that, and most likely not that one..._ And one by one, he finally narrowed it down to one name.

"Elcrest," he simply said before saying it again more clearly. "My name is Elcrest"

"My name is Lisette," the girl replied. "I saw you in the water with your eyes closed and I thought you were drowning. So I dragged you out and dried you…"

"Ah, well I suppose a thanks is in order." Elcrest said, he got up and tilted his head in gratitude. "Thank you, Lisette."

Lisette accepted his gratitude with a smile. She then remembered his name was and dropped into her thoughts for a moment. _That's strange of name to take up, especially when it's from a folklore. Well, it might not seem weird but...maybe I should ask him if that's really his name…_

Lisette spoke up to Elcrest. "That's rather an unusual name, is it? Did your parents name you after the folklore or…?"

"Huh?" He said questionably. "No? I don't think I was name after folklo-."

He stopped himself mid sentence from realizing what she just said. _Folklore_ He thought to himself _, Why did she think that my name comes from folklore? Unless…_ Elcrest was afraid that this was gonna happen although he wanted to ask her a few questions for confirmation just in case he wasn't thinking what might've happened.

"Uh...Lisette, if I may, can I ask you a few questions?" He said.

She nodded, "Sure, what do you need?"

Elcrest began, "What was the folktale that you're talking about, exactly?"

Lissete was thrown off a bit at his question. Attempting to hide her bewilderment, she half-heartedly smiled. "Sure, i'll tell you the story."

She began to wonder if his parents have ever told him that story. Everyone knows the legend or at least the gist of it. She then wondered if he hit his head as he was passed out in the middle of the pond. Her thoughts were interrupted as Elcrest spoke up.

"Are you going to tell me the story?" he asked.

Lisette forgot for a moment that he was there while she was busy being in her thoughts. "Oh right, sorry! I was trying to remember how the story goes." She lied, hoping that he believed it. She began her story about the legendary hero. Elcrest sat down and crossed his legs and listened.

"Once upon a time, there was god on the moon…" She began. "people worshipped this god... and soon, a kingdom was founded-the kingdom of Regnant. While the People thrived, the people's faith god dwindled. And so, god despaired over this and sent an army of angels down to punish the faithless. Until one boy, Elcrest, stood up." Elcrest stayed quiet as he shifted in his crossed position. "Elcrest went up to where god resided, the moon, and gave his life to quiet it. Saved by his sacrifice, the Regnant Kingdom now regards and praises him as a hero." Lisette paused and took in a small breath. "The end…"

Elcrest stood up and stretched his legs before facing Lisette again.

"And that's the folklore for ya." She yawned and spoke again. "So, what do you think of it?"

"I think it's a great story. Elcrest was heroic for that sacrifice…" Elcrest answered.

"Yeah… I think so too," Lisette said, "Any more questions you want to ask?"

Elcrest took a moment to figure out what else he needed to ask before he was on his way. "Ah yes, I was wondering how long ago did that story take place. Do you happen to know?"

Again, Lisette was bewildered and thrown off by his question but answered regardless. "I don't know exactly when it all took place, but it happened roughly 1000 years ago."

Elcrest began to feel heavy at this. _1000 years!? I was asleep for 1000 years!? But that would mean..._ Of course Elcrest knew what that meant, the witches he knew weren't with him anymore, his friends aren't here anymore, and the kingdom must've forgot about his disappearance if that story made it sound like he just died on moon. He had nowhere to go and all hope within him was lost.

"Hey are you okay? You're starting to look pale…" Lisette looked worried.

"Oh, no, I'm fine. I'm just hungry is all." That wasn't a lie. He was starting to get hungry after all this waiting and asking but that was only half the reason.

"Oh, do you want to come with me to my village? I'm sure the people would be happy to have a visitor!" She said with excitement.

"I would like that, thank you for the offer," Elcrest said. "Care to lead the way?"

"Of course! It's just down this trail." She said with haste.

She went towards the dirt path that lead through the trees and twisted its way around them. Elcrest followed after her. He hoped that this would take his mind off things for a bit before he starts worrying about them too much.

"That's a nice pendant. Who gave it to you?" Lisette said as she kept walking.

Elcrest wonder what she was talking about then followed her eyes to where she was staring at. A bright blue pendant shaped like a teardrop was hanging on his neck by a string and dangled over chest. He looked at it for a bit as he questioned himself what it was.

 _Wait...isn't this..._ Elcrest held the pendant for while before realizing what it was. _This is...her qualia..._ Elcrest clenched the qualia and held it close to him as if someone were to take it away from him at any moment.

"A friend gave me this," he lied. "They told me to always treasure it so I always wore it."

Lisette believed him. "That's sweet of you, well...we're almost there to the village. I imagine everyone will be glad to meet you!"

"I hope so..." Elcrest trailed off.

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Woo! And that's a wrap for chapter one! It honestly took a while for me type. I will bring more chapters in the future (and maybe have improve writing too). Until next time, see ya! Update: Made some minor and probs unnoticeable changes to this chapter and renamed this chapter as prologue


	2. Chapter 1: Life in Mithra

And hello again, Stella Glow fans! Sorry for the wait if you got impatient but now's the time to read this new chapter!  
Lemme know what you think of it in the reviews as usual.

Disclaimer: I do not own Stella Glow and the characters in this story, they are owned by Imageepoch. Please support the official release.

A/N: Chapter has been fixed and updated!

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Chapter 1: Life in Mithra

Elcrest and Lisette continued walking down the dirt path towards Mithra, the village Lisette promised to take him to. To distract himself, Elcrest began relaying the story she told him a while ago in the back of his mind. He began listing the inaccuracies of the story Lisette told him. It was suppose to be an accurate presentation of his journey centuries ago.

 _It's ironic that 'god' was worshiped by these people when in reality, they actually feared it. Its goal was to drive humanity into extinction and watch the survivors just so it can do it again when it needs to. I was not about punishing those who didn't believe in it._ Elcrest went deeper into his thoughts. _It wasn't a god to begin with either. It was a monstrosity that was created by the technolomies' death wish and now..._ His face scrunched up a bit. _And now generations that came after were forced this curse upon themselves. They were to be slaughtered, again and again._ He silently sighed and looked at Lisette who was walking in front of him as she lead the way, not noticing Elcrest's tense face. _That's why the Celestial Qualia was created, why I am here...to combat it._ His hand reached for the Water Qualia and clutched it. _And... I failed to do that. Was the duty as the Conductor not enough?_

Elcrest broke out of his thoughts as he began to notice a gate in the distance. A village was clearly laid beyond it.

"We're almost there!" Lisette said joyously, she picked up the pace of her walking, as well as Elcrest to keep with up her.

It wasn't long before they reached the entrance of the village. A woman was standing there looking at them. Lisette waved towards the women and the women replied in kind. Elcrest managed to get a good look at her as they got closer. The woman was the spitting image of Lisette. Like Lisette, she had red hair but a lighter shade. Her hair was more grown out than Lisette's. It reached the middle of her back, past her shoulders. She also had the same pair of emerald eyes.

"Hey, Mom! I'm back!" Lisette said.

"Welcome back, Lisette." The woman said. She peered behind her to see that she brought someone with her. "Oh, I see you brought a guest."

"Yup! I met him while I was out visiting the pond." Lissete answered.

"Oh, I see!" She smiled at her and Elcrest. "Well, I'm glad you made a new friend."

Somewhere, you can hear a certain story writer sweating loudly (yes, loudly) because they're wondering if they're doing these personality things and convos right and it makes them afraid.

"Well, I would like to properly introduce you to my new friend, Elcrest." Lisette gestured towards Elcrest who was standing behind her. "Elcrest, this is my mom, Rosa." She gestured towards the women in front her. Lisette stepped aside to let Elcrest and Rosa meet each other personally.

"Hello, Elcrest. It's a pleasure to meet you." Rosa said with a welcoming smile.

"Hello, Miss Rosa. It's so nice to be properly introduced to you." Elcrest tilted his head in gratitude.

"So what brings you to these parts?" Rosa asked.

"Lisette invited me to come eat with her in the village." Elcrest answered. He began to worry a bit that Lisette just invited him without letting her mom know, since he just only met her. Everything should go by parents so he asked for good measure. "Are you against this at all?"

"Not at all, any friends of Lisette's are welcome." Rosa warmly smiled.

"Alright," he said.

The trio went inside the village, and, much to Elcrest surprise, it was relatively small.

The village itself was a humble little town with humble folk. Here, you can see houses banded together in small bunches with roads. They were made of uneven mix of brick a dirt between them. All the small roads meet into the village center, an open area. Here, children played, and adults socialized.

Elcrest turned his head in different directions as he observed the town with Lisette and Rosa. The townspeople turned towards their direction to see the new guest they bought. Elcrest looked at them, and in turn they all smiled and/or waved. The children paid no mind to him. They were busy tossing a ball back and forth with each other.

The three stopped by a house that was near the middle of the village. Rosa reached for a flower pot that sat in front of the window and took out what looks like a key from it. She pushed the key into the lock and turned before grabbing the knob and opening the door. Inside, the room contained a fire place on the left side of the room with a couch on the opposite side. A bookshelf filled with both new and worn books stood at the back of the room and a doorway to the left of it. Elcrest took in his surroundings as they walked in, he spotted the couch and his legs started to ache for rest.

"Miss Rosa, may I please sit there?" Elcrest pointed to the couch.

"Oh, of course." Rosa said. "Please, take a seat if you must."

He let out a mental sigh of relief as he took a seat on the couch. He started stretching his legs and then relaxed them. It was nice to take a rest after the long trek from the forest to the village.

Rosa turned to Lisette and asked, "While I go to the village market for dinner preparations, can you keep your friend here company?"

Lissete nodded and with that, Rosa went out and closed the door. Lisette sat on the couch a few inches away and faced Elcrest.

"So what do you think of Mithra so far?" She asked.

Elcrest thought for a moment. "It's nice. The people here seem nice, and I'd say it's pretty humble town. Although..." He looked out towards the nearby window. He sees the children from earlier still playing with the ball. "What do you guys do for entertainment?"

"Well, what I do is either read stories to the kids every now and then or I stay in my room to either draw or read." Lisette replied. "Although, that's just my thing. Some of the people in the village hunt in the forest to sell wolf or deer meat to our local market. Sometimes personally to people, if they want them fresh."

She unknowingly got Elcrest's curiosity. "And since winter's coming up, some people volunteer to help collect wood for fire." Lisette then moved her head to look behind him. "And lastly, you could always grab a book off the shelf behind you if you want."

"Thanks for the suggestions, I'll actually read a book if I may." He said.

"Of course!" She smiled. "Feel free to take one from the shelf."

Elcrest knew what he was gonna be doing now until dinner. He stood up from his spot and walked over to the bookshelf. He grabbed a random one from the shelf and went back to the couch. He opened the book and flipped a few pages where the story started and began reading.

Feeling satisfied, Lisette got up from the couch. She began walking towards the doorway left of the bookshelf. She stopped and looked backed at Elcrest. "If you need anything, I'll be in my room."

"Mm," was the only thing he said before Lisette walked out of the room. Elcrest put the book down next to and began taking off his boots and set them beside the couch. Putting his feet up and laying on the couch, he began reading again.

Time skip to roughly 15 minutes later

There was a knock on the door. Elcrest closed the book and got up from the couch and went towards the door to open it. Rosa was back and she was carrying a wooden container. It had various vegetables sticking out from the top.

"Ah, lemme help with that." He reached out with his hands ready.

"Oh, why thank you Elcrest." She gave the container to Elcrest as he began to get a firm hold on it.

He pulled back and held the somewhat hefty weighted container by himself. "So, where do you want me to put this?"

"The kitchen would be fine. I'll show the way." she said.

Elcrest set the vegetables down on a nearby counter. He looked around the kitchen and saw things new and old that were not from his time. The sink was the first thing he noticed. It was simply a pipe with a small valve attached to it that came up from the counter. It curved downward to a bowl-like structure on the counter. He looked at the oven which was a somewhat small metal container sat on the far side of the kitchen against the wall. It had a small door that contained wood inside and the oven itself had a flat, smooth looking top. A large steel pipe jutting out of the back that went up through the ceiling.

 _What is that?_ He asked himself. _I guess 1000 certainly made unusual advances..._

Interrupted from his fascination, he heard Rosa asking him for something. "Can you go get Lisette for me while I start up the oven?"

"Of course." he said

Elcrest walked out of the kitchen and through the main hallway of the house. He passed by a room that is presumed to be Rosa's room. Continuing on, he walked up a small climb of stairs that lead to Lisette's room. He knocked on the door a few times.

"Come in!" Lisette said.

Elcrest opened the door and stuck his head in. Lisette's room wasn't anything special. It had a bed that was placed by the window where it had a good view of the town. Next to it, a wooden nightstand with one drawer stood with an unlit candle on top. Towards the other side of the small room where Lisette was sitting was desk. The desk itself contains various writing utensils littered on it and a cup that held more inside. Another candle rested opposite to the cup of utensils.

Lisette looked up from her desk. "What do you need?"

Elcrest opened the door all the way stood in the doorway. "Your mom told me to come get you, I presume she needs your help to make dinner..."

She got stood up from her chair. "Okay, i'll be there in a sec."

She began picking up the littered utensils on her desk and put them back into the cup. Elcrest let her through the doorway as she walked downstairs to the kitchen as he followed after her.

Time skip to roughly 1-2 hours, it's in the evening and dusk draws near

Elcrest placed the empty bowl down after drinking the vegetable soup Rosa had made. With a full stomach and satisfaction, he felt the warm sensation of his soup overtake him. He slouched a bit in his chair.

"That soup was delicious Rosa." Elcrest commented. "Thank you for letting me stay for dinner."

"The pleasure is mine." She smiled. "I'm glad my cooking was good."

Lisette just then set her bowl down and swallowed before speaking up "Well now it's time for dessert!"

She got up and went over to one of the cabinets and took out a plate with a glass top. Inside was what looked liked what a cake with several strawberries on top. Although, the cake itself was rather unusual in color.

 _Is that cake...purple?_ Elcrest thought to himself as he looked at Lisette's bizarre dessert.

"I made this cake yesterday when I had the ingredients to make it, I wanted to have today after dinner so..." She held the plate holding it a little higher. "Let's eat!"

Lisette grabbed a knive from one of the nearby drawers and began cutting the cake into eight slices. She brought it over to the table and set it down between the three of them and began serving the slices.

"For you, Elcrest." She passed a slice to him.

"Thank you." He took the plate but hesitantly looked at it for he was not sure if purple was even a natural color for cake to have. He waited for the other two get their slices.

"One for you, Mom." She passed a slice to Rosa.

"Thank you, Lisette." She took the slice and started to eat.

"And one for me!" She said excitingly, she sat down with a slice and begun eating.

Elcrest sat there in silence, looking at the slice with worry. He wasn't sure if he should eat it. Lisette looked up to notice he wasn't eating.

"What's wrong?" she asked. "Too full to eat?"

"No, that's not it...it's just..." He trailed off. "Why does the cake purple? Is it even safe to eat?"

With sudden realization Lisette spoke almost immediately. "Oh I forgot!" She explained, "For some reason, every time I cook something, it tends to turn purple for whatever might be the case... I try to cook exactly how my mom says to do it, but no matter what... It always turns out like this." Lisette frowned.

Rosa tried to comfort her. "It's okay, even though it looks a bit bizarre to look at. It's still okay to eat regardless."

"If you safe so..." Elcrest said worryingly, he grabbed his fork and took a piece off then put it in his mouth. Expecting for it to taste something other than actual cake, the sweetness and fluffy texture was what threw him off.

"How is it?" Lisette asked.

Elcrest swallowed his piece and spoke up. "It's really sweet and soft. Honestly, I didn't know what I expected, it tastes delicious." He started eating the cake this time and enjoyed it with every bite.

"Aww, that's sweet of you." she said.

Lisette felt better and went back to eating the last of her slice before grabbing another piece. Elcrest just now finished his slice and looked up only to see Lisette go at the said slice. To Elcrest's bewilderment, the slice itself was a bit bigger than the last slice than the last one she ate. I guess she really loves cake... He thought. Lisette noticed him staring at her questionably and reddened with embarrassment. She stopped eating and pushed the cake slice away from her.

"Um, I think I had enough for awhile." she said nervously.

Rosa finished her slice and set her plate into the sink and looked out the window. "Oh my, it's gotten rather dark hasn't it?" The sun was barely at the horizon as only a small sliver of it was visible and everyone in the village has gone inside. "Elcrest, are you sure you want to go home this late? If you want you could stay here for the night at least."

"Oh no, I don't...think I...should..." Elcrest felt hesitant to accept as he did stay here for most the day. Staying here any longer would feel like he was prolonging his stay.

"It's alright if you stay here for the night." She warmly smiles. "You can share a bed with Lisette."

Elcrest felt awkward that he's sharing a bed, especially with someone he just met today. "Uh, I can just take the couch if you want me to..." Elcrest said uneasily.

"Oh, I insist." Rosa said. "Lisette won't bite, and I'm sure she wouldn't mind sharing a bed."

"M-Mom!" Lisette pouted, her cheeks started turning pink.

"I was only joking." Rosa chuckled. "But really, you should share a bed with him as it's only for one night. Sleeping on the couch would be bad for your back and neck."

"Alright, if you say so..." Elcrest felt unsure.

"Well, I think i'll be turning in for the night." Rosa yawned and walked out of the kitchen. "Good night, you two."

A sound of door opening and closing was the last thing they heard. The two stood in awkward silence looking at each other.

"Just give me a blanket, and I'll sleep on the couch." Elcrest said.

"No, it's okay. I don't mind sharing a bed." Lisette sighed. "I just find it weird that I'm sharing a bed with someone, especially when I just met you today."

"Is that a yes or...?" Elcrest asked.

"It's a yes, silly." Lisette laughed a bit. "C'mon, let's go to my room. Don't want to disrupt my mom's sleep."

Elcrest nodded and followed her to her room.

Walking in to Lisette's room, he noticed the drawing Lisette was working on the desk. He decided to take a quick look at it. The drawing wasn't completely done, but he still managed to figure out what she was planning to draw.

The figure had a hat that witches would wea- _wait, isn't that... a witch!_ Elcrest eyes widened a bit as he thought to himself abruptly. And more importantly, she kinda looks like... He looked at the picture again and this time, he was able to remember who he was thinking of. _Hilda! Out of all things I forgot while I was asleep, it was her that I forgot..._ Elcrest clenched his teeth. _I know she's still alive. I know she's been waiting for me to come back. She said it herself that she would be here for me when I woke up. But where is she?_

Elcrest was snapped out of his thoughts by Lisette. "I see you're taking interest in my drawing."

Elcrest turned around to face Lisette. "Uh yes, it's a good drawing..." he trailed off. "So what's it of?"

"It's a witch for a story I'll be telling the kids in a few days.' Lisette said. "It's about the mystery behind witches and how they use song for magic."

Elcrest nodded. "Ah, I see. Well, good luck with the drawing."

"Thanks." Lisette yawned and got into the bed and went to the side that was closest to the window. She turned around in the bed and looked at Elcrest. "Aren't you sleepy too?"

"Uh, yeah." he said.

He lifted one of his bare feet and studied the well-worn calluses. He let out a shaky breath and crawled into the bed. He kept a fair distance from Lisette, giving her most of the bed and facing away from her. It wasn't because he didn't like her but more out of respect for having to sleep in the same bed as her. Worrying about finding Hilda, he closed his eyes and tried to sleep.

"Hey, Elcrest." Lisette broke the silence. "Can I ask you something?"

"Sure..." He stayed unmoved from his spot at the edge of the bed.

"You don't have a home, do you?" Lisette asked. Elcrest's heart skipped a beat.

"I was afraid you might've asked..." Elcrest shifted in his spot.

"Well what kind of person lays in pond unconscious? That isn't exactly a home you know." Lisette joked.

"I suppose you're right" Elcrest let out small chuckle. "Though, I'll have to find a place soon without any complications..."

"You know, can always stay here with us..." Lisette spoke again. "I mean, if you want to stay here and live with us that is..."

Elcrest had to process that in his head twice before realizing what she said. "Wait, what?"

"Yeah, you can live with us. My mom has a room where it's just a place we put some junk in there." She turned to look at him. "We can clean it up and have it as your room..."

Elcrest thought about her offer to let him stay here and live with them. _Well, I guess I can stay. I mean, I have to start my search for Hilda soon. I suppose staying here wouldn't hurt since she offered but I'm...unsure._

Elcrest rolled over in his spot to face Lisette. "I suppose I'll take you're offer. Although, what would your mom think?"

"It's not that hard to convince her." Lisette pointed out. "She loves people, and it's been quiet lonely with just me and her."

"Oh, I see."

"Well, I'll be going to sleep." She said. "Goodnight."

She turned again then closed her eyes and went to sleep.

Elcrest laid there in silence as he relayed what she said to him. He got to have a home and Lisette and her mother were kind to him and offered their hospitality to him. It was only right that he stayed and find a way to pay them back for what they did for him. He shifted closer, away from the edge and closer to Lisette.

"Goodnight, Lisette." He closed his eyes again and let the spell of sleep overtake him, finding it easier sleep now.

"Goodnight, Elcrest." was the last thing he heard as he fell asleep.

The only noise you could hear was him and Lisette snoring. An unfamilar hum came from the qualia on Elcrest's chest. It slowly crept towards Lisette, just barely touching her.

Elcrest was the first one to wake up to the morning sun. He got up and rubbed his eyes and started stretching afterwards. About to leave the bed, he noticed the Water Qualia giving off a low hum and dim glow. Not knowing what to do, he got off the bed and suddenly, he didn't hear the hum anymore. He looked at it again and the glow on it was gone. Curiously, he walked backed to the bed closer to Lisette and the qualia glowed again. He took off the qualia and held it in his hand as he brought it closer to Lisette. The hum was easier to hear and the glow brightened.

 _It seems the Water Qualia had found its candidate..._ He thought. _Strange to think it was the first person I met after a one thousand years._

He grabbed the qualia by its string. With care, put it around Lisette's neck hoping she wouldn't wake up. He managed to put it on her before putting his boots back on and walking downstairs and outside the house. He decided to take a morning stroll around the village to familiarize himself with the place. If he was gonna stay here, he might as well soak in his surroundings and know where everything is.

After walking about the village, he decided to walk home but heard something in a distance. He stopped in his tracks and listen carefully of what the source might be and where it was.

 _Someone is...singing?_ He thought. _But where is it coming from?_

He looked around, continuing to pay attention to where the singing might come from. He walked around the village, wondering if he was getting closer or farther. After a while, he stopped by one of the village entrances.

 _So it's where I came from, huh?_ With determination, he began running through the trail and into the woods. _Whoever this witch is, maybe they can help me._ He thought as he continued dashing through the woods.

Elcrest finally arrived at the pond where the source of the singing was. He stopped at the shore and looked across the lake where the witch sung on top of a tree. He looked at the figure to try to determine who she was. The figure was wearing a black, pointed cap that had what looked like a silver crown surrounding the base. The hat's rim was wide enough to cover the singer's face. On her arms, she wore purple and white gauntlets and on her legs, she wore greaves that were the same color scheme. The rest of her attire was bizarre at first glance. It looked like she wasn't wearing anything. Though, if you look carefully, you can see her wearing beige leggings and gloves. She also wore a shirt of the same color hugged by a black coat with trails and purple frills.

 _It's...it's her!_ Elcrest ran around the pond towards the tree where the witch sat.

"Hilda!" He called out, stopping a few feet away from the tree.

The witch, Hilda, stopped singing and looked around to find the person who called her name. Looking down, she noticed a boy running to her from around the small lake. Sighing, she stood up from her spot and slowly climbed down the base of the tree. Finding a suitable height, she let go of the bark and dropped down. Elcrest had finally made it to where she was and stood. He took a few breaths before regaining his composure.

"Who are you?" Hilda asked. She stared with a bored look which remained unchanged as she waited for him to answer.

"I suppose it's been too long for you to recognize me right away..." He felt a little disheartened but half of him expected that kind of response from her. He was in a deep sleep for about a thousand years. It wasn't exactly the perfect scenario to just get recognized right away by her.

"Hence why I asked." She said. "So I ask again, who are you?"

 _No point in being cryptic about it._ He thought. He didn't have time to give her subtle hints. He needed to act now or else she would most likely leave, and this may be his last chance to actually get help.

"I'm...Elcrest..." He said hesitantly.

"W-wait, what?"

Now he had the Time Witch's full attention. Hilda looked at him with widened eyes with a mix of interest and shock that he just now admitted himself who he was. And out of nowhere, no less. Questions began to fill and run free within her head. Most of them started with "how" and "why" with the occasional "when". She didn't know how to deal with this. She didn't how to think of this. One moment she was singing to herself and now this boy comes over to her almost out of nowhere and says he's Elcrest? Stranger things had happen to her but this? This is something she can't comprehend. Can she believe that it's really him?

She regained her composure and spoke again. "What makes you so sure?"

She wanted to deny it was him as he didn't exactly have any proof he was the supposed hero. Though, for some reason, the more she looked at him, the more she wanted to push that denial back.

"I don't exactly have any proof..." He trailed off. Hilda's interest dropped immensely. Feeling annoyed, she walked off into the woods.

"Where are you going?" Elcrest asked.

Hilda turned around. "If don't have any proof, then I'm not wasting my time here." She paused for a moment. "Though, promise me you will leave whatever village you live in."

Elcrest was confused. "Wait, why would I-."

"Goodbye." Hilda cut off. She turned again and walked in the opposite direction.

As she walked away from him, she kept a mental note to keep a close eye on him. She wasn't sure herself why she would but she had a feeling that she should.

Elcrest was loss at words. He didn't know what to say next. He didn't exactly know what proof he can show he was. All he knows is that Hilda didn't believe he was, only asking him to make a promise to her.

 _Promise. Why does that word stand out?_ He asked himself. _Promise..._

"Hilda, wait!" He ran towards the direction she took and tried to catch up to her.

"If you have something to say, say it now." She sighed, turning around to face him again. "I have things to attend to."

"A promise." He said. "You made a promise to me..."

"Yes, wasn't it the promise to leave your village?" she said.

"No, it's not that." he said. "It's another promise."

"Oh?" She paid a bit more attention to him now. "What could that promise be?"

"I don't know it by heart..." He started. "But I do know you promised me that when I was asleep, you promise to keep this world safe until I came back."

He slowly walked toward her. Hilda suddenly found it hard to stand. Her knees felt week at his response and found it hard to hold a few rain drops from falling. She hid her face by lowering her hat.

"N-no.." She stuttered. "Y-you're lying." She wanted to believe. She wanted to believe it was him. As much as she tried yet, something held her back.

"I am not." Elcrest answered. "I'm the person you've been waiting for." He spoke louder. "I'm the person who has been asleep for one thousand years! And most of all..." He lifted the witch's hat, greeted by a saddened expression with tears filling her eyes. "You've waited all these years...just for me..."

Hilda couldn't take it anymore. She lurched forward to embrace him. At first, what were whimpers turned into crying. She let her tears flow free, letting out every emotion she had. When was the last time she felt something like this? When did ever felt this happy? Living for this long, all she felt was determination. In the moment, it didn't matter. She didn't care. She just wanted to have this feeling while it lasted.

Elcrest returned the embrace and comforted her. After centuries of separation, the pair has finally reunited once again.

* * *

Well that's it for chapter 1, hope to see ya again when chapter 2 comes out!

Some Trivia: The Witch drawing I describe is the one you see in the Song of Beginning (Prologue) chapter of the game.

Bonus: Some things that couldn't make in the story because either out of character, not well thought out, try to make it funny but felt like it was stupid to do, or because the chapter was gonna be long enough.  
Kitchen Scene: basically Elcrest helping around in the Kitchen and being complimented on his cutting skills of the veggies, honestly thought it was kinda time consuming and a bit of a waste to do.  
Scene where he examines the sink and oven: _What a beautiful Duwang_ He thought. (because references I guess?)  
Scene where he talks to Hilda: "Where have I met you before?" "1000 years ago when I was half dead because big spooky space crystal wanted to kill me" He plainly threw out. (Didn't think it would be that humorous or match the mood of the scene)


	3. Chapter 2: Conflict

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhh! Yeah, it's finally here. After a month long hiatus, it's here. This honestly took longer than I expect but meh, i'm inconsistent with my writing anyway. But yeah, enjoy the read guys! Lemme know what you think in the reviews, i need to improve.

* * *

Disclaimer: I do not own Stella Glow or its characters. They are owned by imagepoch. Please support the official release.

* * *

Chapter 2: Conflict

Both Elcrest and Hilda continued embracing each other for quite a while at the shore. They had their respective reasons to not let go and it wouldn't be anytime soon. At least until the Time Witch was satisfied of letting every emotion out within the tight hug. She was happy, she was relieved for once, and she didn't get to have something like this often. Hilda had trouble feeling any sort of emotion for the past several decades. She only felt the dull determination of the promise she kept to Elcrest. And for once, she was able to feel something different this time other than that.

Elcrest felt similar emotions, he was also happy. Happy he was able to see Hilda again. Relieved she was still here, waiting for him after all the centuries that passed. Yet, some part of him felt a strong sense of guilt. Something felt wrong about the promise he made. _Was this worth the centuries Hilda had to make herself go through?_ He asked himself.

"Hilda," he said.

"Yes?" Hilda sniffled back a few tears.

"I'm sorry..." He said. "I'm sorry for all these years I put you through..."

"I've spent a thousand years in isolation ever since you entrusted me with such a task... There were times where I thought that I should've given up," Hilda looked up into his eyes, smiling, "but being able to see you again made all those years seem meaningful."

"I'm glad..." The pair had let go and decided to catch up before deciding their next move.

"Allow me to ask..." Hilda started, "Where have you been staying and how long has it been since you woke up? I trust it's not far from here, is it?"

"No, actually," he said. He turned his head and pointed towards the dirt path from where he came from. "It's not too far from here. We just take this path, and we'll be there." He turned again. "If memory serves, the village i'm staying at is called Mithra, and it's been only a day since I awoke."

"Oh?" Hilda was a little surprised at the answer.

Elcrest noticed her reaction. "Wait, what's wrong?"

"Nothing," she said, "It's rather irrelevant to say..."

"Relevant or not," he spoke up, "I still would rather hear it than not know. Does this have to do with you telling me to leave the village?"

Hilda let out a stressful sigh. "I...was going to do something to that village..."

"What were you going to do?" He asked.

"Something you would not like..." She trailed off.

Elcrest started to feel peeved at Hilda's refusal to be straight with him. Instead, she acted rather cryptic about it.

"Hilda, I know you have difficulty choosing your words and that you hate explaining," he said, "but please, just this once explain everything about your current situation."

Hilda sighed again. "Fine, but I hope you won't ask this of me often." She mentally prepared herself. "I was planning to entrap that village in crystal using a song I call the Song of Ruin. Before I do, I send one of my subordinates over there to seize it to ensure no one leaves."

"I-I see..." Elcrest tensed a bit. "But what were you trying to achieve when you thought of such...method?"

"It was...a way to stop the Mother..." Hilda said.

"How does encasing people in crystals stop it? What is this Song of Ruin?" He asked. "This is all rather confusing to me."

"I could say the same," she said, "I'm surprised you're taking this all in especially well."

"It's to be expected..." His eyes started to wander. "I sort of knew you would've done something like this over the centuries..."

"Oh? And why is that?" Hilda asked.

"Nobody can live one thousand years and still be the exact same." He looked at her. "For now, you don't seem to act any different, but that will change the more I spend time with you." He shook his head. "But never mind that, we'll talk about this later. What do we do now that I'm here?"

"What do you mean?" She asked, "Are we not using my Song of Ruin?"

"We're not," he said. "It's a method you claim to have said it would stop the Mother but crystallizing people seems... inhumane. I have another plan in mind."

"And what plan is this?" Hilda seemed to be irritated at the sudden change of plan. Yet, even if she wanted to, she wouldn't go against Elcrest's wishes.

"We find the Witches of this era and ask them join us," he suggested. "It the same plan as last time."

"Are you positive it will work this time?" She questioned. "It's that same reason why we're in this situation."

"I promise it will work this time." Elcrest reassured her. "Now we know that the mother gained a personality to protect itself. I won't make the same mistake twice."

"Promise me then," Hilda said. "Promise me you will not fail again."

Guilt hit Elcrest like a train. He knew that if he were to fail the world again, Hilda wouldn't take much more of it. Judging from how she reacted from his reveal, he wouldn't want to imagine what she'd do if he did fail.

"Alright, I promise." Elcrest nodded. "I refuse to make you suffer living through another millennium alone."

"And may god help you if you do." Hilda smiled halfheartedly. "I shudder to imagine what I'd do you if you did."

"As do I..." Elcrest returned her smile with a nervous one. "Shall we get started and find the witches? I'm sure the location of each one will be trivial if the qualias stayed in their respective regions."

Hilda realized what he said and looked at his chest. "Speaking of qualias," Hilda started, "where is the Water Qualia that Fran entrusted to you?"

"I... gave it to a girl in Mithra..." He said hesitantly right before seeing Hilda's shocked faced. "Please, if you allow me to expla-"

"Elcrest, what were you thinking!?" Hilda shouted in an outburst of anger. "You gave the Water Qualia to some girl!?"

"If you would let me to expla-" Elcrest was cut off again.

"If she refuses to hand it over..." Hilda's face hardened. "then I'll take by force."

"The qualia was resonating with her when we met!" Elcrest shouted, trying to get Hilda's attention. Hilda realized what he said and let go of all the frustration she had.

"M-my apologies..." She said. "I was thinking you did it on a whim..."

"The qualia chose her as a potential candidate." Elcrest explained. "All we need to do is to convince her to join us and we'll already have the Water Witch."

"Then we'll go back to the village an-" Hilda was cut off by foreign noise from nearby trees. She summoned her scythe and got into a battle stance.

"Elc, get ready," she said.

"What's going on?" He asked.

He was answered by more rustling from the trees. Before he knew it, they were surrounded by a pack of green jelly looking monsters.

"Monsters!?" He got into a stance as well.

"Do you even have a weapon?" Hilda asked.

Elcrest fumbled around only to see he didn't have one on him. "Damn, unfortunately I didn't bring one"

"You went into the forest and didn't carry a weapon?" Hilda questioned. She raised her hand towards Elcrest. A sheath appeared strapped to his waist with a weapon along with it. "Here, use this for now."

Elcrest unsheathed the weapon. "Thanks." He took his stance again and charged towards the monsters.

 _ **Defeat all enemies. Mission Start!**_

"Here it goes!"

Elcrest jumped up and prepared his sword as he slashed downwards on the jellyman. He followed it up with a horizontal slash while dashing forward as he slashed across its body. The jellyman flattened itself as it disappeared into the dirt defeated. He recomposed himself before putting up his free hand in front of him.

"Ha!"

He leaped towards another jellyman on his right and brought his sword forward and stabbed it. The monster took the attack and formed two unidentifiable liquid orbs from it's antenna-hands(?) and hurled them at Elcrest as he rolled to the left to dodge. He brought his sword up and attacked it again. It flattened itself and disappeared into the dirt again like the previous one.

He took a quick breather but was greeted by a tackle from the back and fell to dirt, knocking the wind out of him. Elcrest struggled to catch his breath before taking his sword and rolling over. He slashed the air in front of him as he rolled to face the sky. He felt the sword connect to something solid. He saw the assailant was another jellyman as it was knocked away by the hit. He got up and took a swing at it, defeating it as it flattened and disappeared.

Elcrest looked around to see 3 more of gelatin monsters close in on him. He took the hilt of the weapon and held it like a dagger across his back.

"Disappear!" He shouted.

He brought the blade forward and slashed the air in front of him. A yellow beam formed at the blade and extended the range of the attack. All three jellymen took the hit as they flattened and disappeared. Elcrest sheathed his weapon and wiped his forehead.

"My capabilities with a sword have declined a bit over the centuries..." He said to himself. "I suppose when I have the time I should train." He looked around to find Hilda facing a few jellymen.

"Darkness will swallow you!" She said before chanting to herself and raising her hand to the nearest jellyman. An orb of distortion appeared before it ripped into space itself, damaging and defeating it. She teleported to the one on her left and brings up her scythe, defeating it in a single blow. The remaining jellymen surround her.

"Hilda, watch out!" He shouted.

Hilda brought up scythe. "I'll shred you!"

She swung out her scythe and spun around. A purple beam was sent out of the blade in a wide radius that wiped out every single jellymen surrounding her.

 _ **Mission Clear!**_

Elcrest and Hilda collected themselves after the battle. Taking a minute of rest before making their next move.

"I have to say..." Hilda started. "The fact that you went into the forest unarmed is reckless of you, Elc." She gave him a half smile. "Though, that is the Elcrest I always knew."

"Fighting side by side with you again feels... nostalgic." He said, returning the smile. "Though, enough idling here. We should return to Mithra and have Lisette join us." Elcrest paused, then corrected himself. "That's the Water Witch's name."

"Let's hurry then." Hilda said. "We spent quite some time here and who knows if more monsters will show up."

"Right." Elcrest nodded.

The pair had walked down the path of the dirt road leading to the village. Unbeknownst to the lost hero and forgotten by the Time Witch, conflict had already arisen in the village. It was only a matter of time before they took notice.

Elcrest came in dashing to the village gates with Hilda following behind him. Hearing what sounded like weapons clashing and shouts coming from village, he couldn't help but run. Upon arriving at the village gate, he fell to dismay at what he saw. Monsters had overun the entire village and not just any monster: **Orcs**. Orcs are barbarian monsters that resemble boars or pigs. They carry wooden clubs and use their brute strength to overpower their foes. Hunters that are unfortunate to encounter one would find them a challenge to fight. In high numbers, they are a truly formidable foe.

"What are monsters doing here in the village!?" Elcrest asked himself. "And fighting with..." He observed the armored knights that were fighting with the Orcs. "...Lambert knights?"

True to his assumption, they were Knights from the Capital of Regnant. Trained to fight monsters and protect the people, they all wielded swords and spears to fight off everyday monsters.

Hilda gasped as she watched the battle unfold in the village. "How careless of me..." Hilda tilted her head down, bearing a sad expression. "How could I forget I sent one of my subordinates here..."

Elcrest whipped his head around the moment he heard this. "Hilda, why would you do something like this!?" He asked, almost pained. "Why did you send monsters here!?"

"Elc, I'm sorry." Hilda said. She felt ashamed, ashamed that he had to see something like this. Something she was responsible of doing.

"These monsters...they're my familiars..." She explained. "I send them to help my subordinates seize the villages I assign them..." She looked at the knights that were fighting them. "By my orders, they aren't suppose to hurt anyone, only to capture. The Regnant knights and anyone who fought back however, made things complicated..."

"Will they listen to you?" Elcrest asked. "They are your familiars after all."

"For the most part, yes," she said, "but they won't listen to anyone once provoked."

"Then we'll have to fight your familiars then." Elcrest drew his sword and charged into the fray. "Let's go!"

"I'll go find my subordinate. Take care." Hilda teleported away.

 _ **Defeat all enemies. Find Hilda's**_ _ **subordinate**_ _ **. Mission Start!**_

He rushed towards an orc fighting a knight. He readied his sword and thrusted it into the monster's body from behind. The orc let out a pained grunt and turned around to face him. He withdrew his sword. Elcrest sidestepped to the right to avoid a downwardswing from the orc's club. He swung his sword again, slashing at the torso. He followed it up with an uppercut. The blade sliced the creature's face. The orc toppled over. It twitched and it took its last breath.

 _These monsters don't really take much to kill.._. He thought. _This won't take long then._

He rushed off to fight another orc, not hearing the knight's thanks. Elcrest attacked another distracted orc from behind. He leaped forward and brought down his sword, slashing its back. As before, the orc turned around and swung its club down.

 _Damn, can't dodge._

His attack from behind left him wide open. He was left too close for comfort with the monster. He brought up the blade and tried to deflect it with the flat. The club connected. It sent strong vibrations through the blade to Elcrest.

The attack itself sent him sliding across the ground a few inches. Elcrest struggled to keep the blade up. He tried to stand his ground, but the Orc's brute strength was overwhelming. Attempting to move aside, he tried to keep the blade up to prevent the club from hitting him as he went out of the way of the attack. Successful, he jumped up and struck the monster. He dashed forward and slashed its side. The orc fell over, unmoving.

"Hey, you!" An unknown voice said. "Just what the hell are you doing!?"

Elcrest turned around to meet a boy somewhat shorter than him. He had messy red hair and wore a black coat with a fur-lined neck. With the coat, everything else is pretty much black except his red shirt. (Even then, just say he's wearing all black). His (questionable) fashion aside, he wasn't happy with Elcrest slaying the familiars.

"Are you responsible for these monsters?" Elcrest asked.

"Obviously," he said, "and I'm not gonna let someone like you mess up my plan."

"Who are you exactly?" Elcrest asked.

"The name's Dante," The red-haired boy smirked. "And I'm the best spearman in the Harbingers."

 _Harbingers?_ Elcrest thought. _I assume that's what Hilda meant by her "subordinates" if it helps her save an explanation._

"If you're responsible for this attack then call it off!" Elcrest demanded. "These innocent people don't need to be caught in the crossfire. It'll cause unnecessary casualties."

"What casualties? All the villagers are locked up in their homes fearing for their lives." Putting a finger on his chin, he thought for a moment. "I think I saw some of them hiding in the bushes and behind some houses." He shrugged. "Doesn't matter, My orders are not to kill. However..." He sneered at the nearby knights. "The Regnant knights somehow knew I was here and provoked the orcs. Now it's making this job a bit more complicated." Sighing, he looked in the direction of the town center. "It doesn't make it any better when that one ginger girl is literally sitting there in the middle of this." Elcrest's eyes widened. "The fighting must have traumatized her..." Shrugging again. "Oh well, it won't matter anyway _once she and the rest of the village are_ _crystallized_." He pointed at Elcrest. "Although I usually let the familiars do all the work, you're special. Taking down those two orcs so easily, I'm not gonna take that lightly which is why I'm calling you out."

Elcrest clenched his teeth. On instinct, he immediately drew his sword and pointed it at Dante. "You..!.." He growled. "Stop this attack right now!"

Dante readied his spear. "Oh, so now you're showing your fangs, huh?" He smirked. "No can do, I'm not gonna let some scrub like you get in my way. Even though I'm not suppose to kill anyone, there isn't anything that says I can't beat you within in inch of your life!" Dante rushed towards Elcrest.

"Haahh!" Elcrest let out a battle cry as he charged in.

Hilda had trouble locating Dante among the chaos. She had teleported from rooftop to rooftop in order to find him, but she hasn't found a sign of him anywhere.

"Where could have he gone too..." She asked herself.

Suddenly, she heard a familiar shouting coming from the other side of the village. Then she heard weapons clashing, metal against metal.

"Oh no..." Hilda said. "It seems Elcrest has found Dante but..." She heard Elcrest shout again this time. "Dante must have provoked him..." She looked on with dismay at the fighting going on and reflected back on all that happened today. "This is just too much for me..." She sighed. "God must really hate me."

Elcrest and Dante worn each other out. Both had landed attacks and caused cuts and bleeding, but the adrenaline kept them from feeling the pain.

"I gotta say..." Dante panted. "You're pretty good." He gave a tired smile. "Ready to give up or do you still want some more?"

"Not a chance." Elcrest said, panting. He took the hilt by both hands and rushed at Dante. Dante prepared his spear to anticipate the next attack.

"Stop it, both of you!" Hilda shouted from the rooftop of the house next to them. Elcrest stopped midway of his rush and Dante lowered his spear. Both of them look up to see Hilda staring at them disappointed.

"Hilda!?" Dante was surprised to see her this early. "Weren't you waiting for me to capture this village before coming here?"

"Change of plans." Hilda said. "We're no longer doing this."

"What!?" Dante couldn't believe what she said. "Wasn't the point of the Harbingers to crystallize everything?"

Hilda looked at Elcrest. "We'll be taking orders from him now."

"Hold on, you know this guy?" Dante asked, he looked at Elcrest. "Just who the hell are you to get Hilda herself to stop all this...?.."

"In time, Dante." Hilda said. "Right now, we have a new objective."

"Finding Lisette..." Elcrest saidd, looking in the direction of the town cente.

 _ **Mission Complete?**_

In the town center, Lisette was at loss. She was kneeling hunched over. She didn't want ti do anything. She didn't want to think of anything. Yet, her mind wanted to reflect back on this morning. This morning wasn't something she expected. When she and Rosa went outside to look, they were greeted by soldiers and orcs clashing throughout the whole town. Unable to go back inside to hide from the fighting, she was seperated from her mom. She went to the townsquare looking for Elcrest since he wasn't in bed this morning. The only thing he left was the charm necklace he discreetly gave to her when she was asleep.

 _Did_ _he leave?_ Lisette asked herself. She started believing her own words but started listing other possibilities. _No, he said he'd live with us._ She fell on her knees. _Why would he leave this with me then?_ She then thought of worse possibility. _Did he give this to me because he heard all the fighting? Did he go out and fight trying to protect us?_ _Then_ _...why?_ _Why_ _can't I find him anywhere?_

Accepting this as fact, her mind returned to the present. She felt tears run down her face and drop onto the ground. She held the charm necklace close to her chest and started to cry. It was then that the qualia shined brightly and imbedded itself into her chest, right into her heart. Lisette hunched over in pain. She fell onto the ground and twitched. She was slowly lifted off the ground, black flames beginning to surround her. She wailed in agony as the flames swallowed her, creating a pillar of flame visible to the whole village.

Elcrest heard her cry and saw the pillar of black flames slowly swallow up the village.

"Lisette!" He shouted.

"What the hell is going on!?" Dante asked. "What's happening over at the town center!?"

"Elcrest!" Hilda spoke up. "We're about to be consumed by her heart! Are you ready to do this?"

"Yeah!" Elcrest said, he began walking towards the flames. "Here I go!"

In a black expanse, Elcrest floated up to Lisette. He reached out with his open hand to her back. The qualia then revealed itself, and once it fully separated, Elcrest grabbed it. The black expanse then began to shape itself. Checkered floors erupted from the darkness and formed a path to Lisette, The background itself started to change as well. Images of chandeliers fell from above and hung above the currently reforming world while images of fish floated about in random directions. The qualia disappeared from Elcrest's hand and formed behind Lisette, immensely larger this time and formed magic circles around and created a background behind it that look like mosaic glass with a missing piece. An eyeball filled the space where the missing piece was and looked around in random directions before disappearing and reappearing again.

 _ **Lisette's Spirit World**_

 _ **Begin Tuning**_

"So this is Lisette's spirit world…" Elcrest said. "It seems her world is trying to represent the water qualia by making the illusion of being underwater…it's somewhat alike to Fran's spirit world." He looked at the linear path formed directly towards Lisette.

Lisette was mentally exhausted. She was on her knees, eyes closed, and heavily breathing. "I...I…" Lisette muttered. "I...thought this would've been great for me and my mom…" She slouched a bit. "Why..?..why did it come to this..?.."

Elcrest walked up the path. As he walked and looked around, he was reminded of his adventures from one-thousand years ago.

"It's hard to believe i'm doing this again…" Elcrest mused. "To start all over...to tune a witch's heart…" His gaze was drawn to the Water Qualia ahead. "To fight Mother Qualia…" He continued walking.

Lisette took a deep breath. "If I can just stay here...wherever this is…" She muttered again. "I wouldn't mind…"

"Lisette!" Elcrest called out, he was a few feet away but Lisette heard him and looked up surprised.

"E-Elcrest...?" She stuttered. "Is that really you?"

"Yes." He said, finally making it at the top of the checkered stairs.

"I thought you were dead!" Lisette exclaimed. "Where were you this whole time? I couldn't find you anywhere in the village!"

"I'm sorry for worrying you." Elcrest said, pulling up Lisette from the floor. "I should've told you I was going out in the first place." A flash of light appeared at Lisette's chest. A loud heartbeat was heard.

"I'm so glad you're okay…" Lisette gave tired smile. "Where are we anyway? W-what is this place?"

"We're inside your heart," Elcrest explained, "and I'm here to tune you."

"Tune me?" Lisette repeated, confused. "Inside my... heart?"

"Ah, I must've forgotten." Elcrest said. "You're being turned into a _**witch.**_ "

"A w-witch!?" Lisette said. "How is that possible? When did I have the potential too?"

Elcrest pointed at the Water Qualia behind her, and she turned around to look at it. "It's the power of that qualia that will turn you into one."

"That was part of the necklace you gave me!" Lisette said. She turned back to him. "Elcrest, I wanna ask you something."

"Alright."

"Are you really the Elcrest from one-thousand years ago?" She asked. "Everything that happened from yesterday till now can't be coincidence, is it?"

Elcrest looked down, staring into the abyss of the spirit world. He then looked at the Water Qualia.

"Elcrest?"

"It's true." He simply said. "I am the same Elcrest from one-thousand years ago. The same one you heard in the stories."

"But how are you still alive?" She asked. "People can't live that long…"

"I was put to sleep in that lake you found me in," he explained. "The Water Qualia watched over and preserved my body until I was ready to awaken."

"So the qualia…" Lisette looked at giant blue qualia again. "Since I'm a...witch, what will people think of me? What will the people of Mithra think when I come back as a witch?"

"Don't worry about what people think of you." Elcrest said. "For me at least, you turning into a witch won't change what I think about you."

A flash of light appeared on Lisette's chest again. Another loud heartbeat was heard.

"Thanks for reassuring me." Lisette smiled again. "So, how do we get out of here?"

"Here," Elcrest held his hand out. "Take my hand."

Lisette took his hand. A bright light enveloped them as they were taken out of the spirit world.

 _ **Tuning Complete.**_

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So yeah, that's all the chapter for now guys. Honestly, my writing is inconsistent so I don't have an a trend on when the next chapter is finished. Heck, i could be gone for a couple of months and still write this. I could suddenly have the urge to write it within one week. Just throwing that out.

See ya next time!


	4. Chapter 3: Answers

A/N: I honestly forgot to say this and there's no point in going back into chapter 1 to add this in. Hilda's going to actually look older biologically in this fic as I majorly dislike how infantilizing they have made her in the actual game. She will now be biologically around 17-19 years old so she actually looks like an adult and not a child/loli. "Hey, if you're going to change her age, why not change her clothes too? Her design is sexualizing as well!" is going to be question I KNOW someone's to ask. Yeah, i'm aware she's wearing her in-game clothes. HOWEVER, not gonna go back and do some more editing in a previous chapter, I already did this once, not fun. I will though, have her change her clothes in-story so no worries. One last thing before you read the chapter, go check out WitchofAngels' fanfics! They're one shots but they're really good and have pretty solid characterization with each char. I highly recommend you go read them. Anywho, enjoy this chapter guys! Lemme know what you think of it in the reviews!

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Disclaimer: I do not own Stella Glow or it's characters, they belong to Imagepoch. Please support the official release.

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Chapter 3: Answers

Elcrest and Lisette reappeared in the town center. Hilda and Dante were waiting on Elcrest to be done with his tuning. Before anybody could say anything. Lisette began to glow a bright blue light and transformed.

"Aaaaaaagh!" Lisette felt her body burning up as she changed. From the waist up, she wore a corset; from the waist down, a deep blue silky dress reaching down to her knees. She donned a blue and white cap with two bristles attached to thin strings by the ends of her cap. The light around her began to fade as everyone looked her new outfit.

"Well done, Elcrest," Hilda complemented. "We now have the Water Witch."

"So what exactly happened?" Dante asked. "What was that light just a moment ago?"

"That was a tuning…" Elcrest began. "It's a somewhat...complicated process. However, turning a girl into a Witch is something that's new to me…" He turned to Lisette. "How are you feeling? Nothing's wrong, I hope?"

Lisette took heavy breaths as she regained her composure. "I-I don't know…" She panted. "It feels...really hot…!" She looked at Elcrest. "I-is that normal..?"

"I really can't say..." Elcrest pondered this. "I have never had seen someone turn into a Witch to know; I've only tuned them. This is my first time seeing someone turn into a Witch." Elcrest didn't have any experience on turning people into a Witch, so who knew if what Lisette was feeling right then was normal or a bad sign. Still, nothing seemed to look _physically_ wrong with her. Discarding the thought for now, he turned to Hilda.

"So what are we supposed to do from here on out?" He asked Hilda. "Do you suppose we meet with Veronica to have her point us in the right direction?"

"Can't really say…" Hilda started, sounding a bit peeved at the mention of the scientist. "Her lack of sympathy to any of us is the reason why I use my Song of Ruin."

"What does Veronica have to do with that?" Elcrest asked, confused on the matter. Just what reason did Hilda have to blame her for crystallizing people? Could the Time Witch simply just be pointing fingers at people to make her doings justified, or did she actually have a reason to blame the mad scientist for everything she has done at this point?

After being reminded of what Hilda told him about Veronica, Dante started to feel annoyed. "Because that damned bitch only cares about herself!" Dante shouted in anger. "Despite having strong ties with the kingdom and hands-on proof, she didn't care enough to help!" Dante jabbed his spear into the ground.

"Dante, that's enough." Hilda said, feeling a bit on edge after his rant. "He's already on our side, do not create unnecessary tension."

Dante's only response was looking down at the ground as he quietly muttered to himself, saying something about having no other choice as he pulled out his spear.

 _He's...interesting…_ Elc thought to himself, looking at Dante questionably before turning to Hilda. "I assume something bad happened between you two while I was gone?" Hilda turned to Elcrest and sighed before beginning to explain, despite the discomfort it gave her.

"We had...complications..." Hilda started. "When I first discovered what my song could do, I asked Veronica to tell the people what I was doing. Like Dante said, she had strong ties and had proof." She crossed her arms and made a disgruntled face. "She, however, declined to help, believing any further resistance would futile - and to just let it be." Just out of earshot, Dante muttered something under his breath. "Futile, my ass..." or something of the sort.

"Well, regardless," Elcrest said. "She could at least tell us where to go next, even if the objective is simple; just having only the 4 of us isn't enough." Elcrest looked behind him to see if Lisette was still there. Unfortunately, she wasn't, and Elc looked around for a moment before asking aloud, "Hey, where did Lisette go? Wasn't she just here a few moments ago?" Looking around once again, he didn't see her at all. "Lisette!" He called out. "Where are you?" Upon hearing this, Lisette appeared from one of the small paths of the village behind one the houses, with Rosa behind her.

"O-oh! Sorry I just left out of the blue there!" Lisette said. "I was worried about Mom so I went looking for her." Behind her, Rosa smiled and gave a little wave at Elc.

 _Oh, thank goodness she wasn't harmed during the attack._ Elc thought, letting out a sigh of relief as he looked at Rosa, who seemed to be unharmed.

Lisette looked towards, who was unknown to her, Hilda and Dante. Both of them looked at her plainly as she stared back at them. "Um..." Lisette started, continuing to study them.

"What? Got something to say?" Dante asked, interrupting the silent staring.

"Elcrest...?" She whispered to Elc. "Why does that girl look like she isn't wearing anything?" Upon hearing this, Elc felt really confused at the question. _Who looked like they weren't wearing anything? Is she referring to Hilda?_ He asked himself, looking at Hilda and her clothes. _Is Lisette sure she wasn't seein-..._

Upon seeing Hilda's clothes again, he knew exactly what Lisette meant. "Um...Hilda?" He asked.

Hilda looked at Elc. "Yes?" She asked. "Is something wrong?"

"Did you really wear clothes like that this whole time? Even when we first met?" Much to Elcrest's bewilderment and realization, he completely forgot and paid no mind to Hilda's clothes the whole time they traveled together one thousand years ago. He was so focused on taking down Mother Qualia that he didn't pay attention to what Hilda wore at the time. Now with Lisette pointing this out, he wondered himself how something like Hilda's clothing would slip past his mind.

"What's wrong with it?" She asked. "I think black suits me."

"That's not what i'm talking about." He said. "You look ridiculous in those clothes."

"How?" She asked, crossing her arms. "I don't think it does."

"You look like you not wearing anything." Lisette added in. "I had to check twice to see if I was sure I wasn't seeing things."

"Oh my, she does look like she isn't." Rosa decided to partake in the conversation. "I wonder if she has anything else to wear..."

"Oh yeah!" Lisette said. "How about we have her wear that pink onesie I don't use anymore?"

"Are you sure, Lisette?" She asked. "I'm not sure myself if that old onesie would fit."

Hearing the comments on her clothes, Hilda turned her back against them, hiding her blush of embarrassment as they made fun of how she looked. Especially when Lisette and her mom were talking about having her wear a onesie. "A-as if I would wear something so ridiculous!" Hilda told them.

"It's better to wear it than what you're currently wearing." Elc commented, smirking as he saw her face turn even redder.

"E-Elc!" She stammered. Much to their amusement, Lisette started giggling while Elcrest chuckled. Rosa was still thinking whether or not if she could make a onesie for her or give her one of her daughter's older ones.

Meanwhile, Dante kept a straight face, but didn't partake in the conversation. As much as he hated to admit, they were right about Hilda wearing something so indecent. Secretly, he always wanted to make better clothes for her but wasn't sure what she would think of it.

Finish chuckling, Elcrest recomposed himself and cleared his throat. "When we have to time," He said. "Will you change into something more...appropriate?" Elcrest couldn't find the exact word to describe it, but he did get the point across. Hilda sighed and turned around to face them again.

"Fine, I'll change my clothes when I can." Hilda said, she then looked at Dante. "Dante, once we get back, make me a new set of clothes that are deemed 'appropriate'."

"As you wish, Hilda." Dante responded, feeling some satisfaction knowing he would be able to make better clothing for her. "I'll get out my sewing supplies and get to it when we get back."

"To Veronica's lab then?" Elcrest asked them, only to realize he didn't ask Rosa if it was okay to take Lisette with them. While he had no choice to take her with him, it was rude to not ask in the first place. Turning around to face Rosa, he began to ask, "Excuse me, Rosa. If I may ask you this, do we have your permission to take Lisette with us?"

Rosa simply tilted her head in confusion. "To where?" She asked.

"Well, I won't get into the specifics but we're going on a journey of...sorts." Elcrest said. "We need Lisette's help to accomplish this and I'm asking you to be allowed to take her." As much as Elcrest wanted to be straight with her, he couldn't be completely honest and say that they were planning to recruit Witches to fight something that threatened this world. He hoped this will only be the time he will have to give vague answer and expect to be trusted. Strangely, to his satisfaction, he didn't have to be vague by some curse or spell that bounded his blunt tongue.

Rosa stared at Elc for while, eventually smiling at him. "Okay, Elcrest!" She said. "You can take Lisette with you. But promise me you'll take care of her for me, alright?"

"It's a promise." Elcrest said. He looked at Lisette. "Lisette, are you ready to come with us?"

"W-what!?" Lisette exclaimed. "Where are we going exactly!?" Not a day ago she met him, the day after the village was attacked not long ago, a while ago she was turned into a Witch, and Elcrest happened to be the hero in the folklore from one thousand year ago. Now, she's going on a journey with said hero to who knows where. To her, all this information was so much for her to take in. She wondered when stuff like this would happen at a steadier pace rather than just everything happening at once.

"I'll explain on the way." He said, looking around cautiously at the soldiers left unconscious from being consumed by Lisette's heart. "To be frank, we best leave now before anyone of these soldiers regain conscious." Truth be told, he wasn't in a hurry at all, he just didn't want to explain to them what happened here. He walked off to where Hilda and Dante were.

"O-ok..." Lisette trailed off, following after him and joining up with him and other two as they walked out of the village, with Elc and Lisette waving their goodbyes to Rosa before she went inside her house. Hopefully, the walk there wouldn't be long as Hilda guided them towards the forest.

Rosa closed the door to her house and looked at the living room. Taking a deep breath, she decided to walk into the storage closet and took out what looked like a box of sewing needles, rolls of yarn, and what looked like a tomato made of cloth with several needles put into it. She went to sit on the couch and began to sew. With Lisette gone, she could go for hours at a time making sweaters and onesies.

Outside, a squad of soldiers, most likely reinforcements, marched into the village. The group looked at the unconscious soldiers and proceeded to help them wake up. Among them, a blond man in white armor looked around the village.

"...What happened here?" He muttered to himself.

-time skip to 10-15 minutes later. Back with the Elc and company, they are nearly a mile away from the village and the group seems to talk among themselves, with Dante talking to Hilda and Elc talking to Lisette-

"So the Harbingers will no longer crystallize now, huh?" Dante asked Hilda. "It feels weird to just stop all this just because of that boy over there." He gestured to Elc behind them. "I won't go against you and the choices you make...but what's so special about him to stop what we originally planned?" He asked this question before in village. He wondered if this was a good time to ask again now.

"In time, Dante." She said, simply keeping a straight face as she looked ahead of the thick forest bush. "I'll explain once we regroup with the others and head back." She didn't want to explain no more than once what's the situation to them, so she planned to tell all of them once they regrouped.

"Alright." To Dante, at least the explanation won't take long for him to finally hear. Still, he couldn't help but wonder how Elc stopped her. Did they know each other or did he have something Hilda wanted from him? Strange to him, both of the acted as if they did know each other for the longest time, the way he casually talked to her and Hilda not being frustrated when they teased her about her (questionable) clothing without even the slightest hint of anger within her made it seem so. Again, at least he will be given an answer soon enough.

Back with Lisette and Elc, they didn't share a word since they left Mithra. Only sharing a few glances every now and then. It was then Lisette broke the silence between them.

"Hey Elc..." She began, whispering as she watched the other two ahead of them, making sure they didn't hear. "I have a question about Hilda..."

"Sure...?.." Elcrest said, wondering what Lisette wanted to know about Hilda all of a sudden.

"Is Hilda the same Hilda?" She asked, voice filled with worry. "Like Hilda, the Witch of Destruction?"

 _Witch of Destruction?_ Elc asked himself, looking at Hilda. _Just how bad did the situation with the Song of Ruin escalate to gain such title?_ To Elc, Hilda's title was the least of his problems, he expected Hilda would've done something like this while he was asleep. The problem is that what type of reputation has Hilda established herself among the kingdom? Being labeled as a criminal or outlaw isn't concerning in the least, being infamous and possibly be known no matter where is a different story. Elc then remembered what he said to Hilda when she first revealed her plan to him. " _Crystallizing seems...inhuman..."_ He said to her. Since he was the one who said that to her, then it was most likely the second conclusion, and that will become a problem. _This is more complicated than I once originally thought...traveling with Hilda would certainly create complications when trying to find the other witches of this time period...not only that..but potential allies would refuse to join the moment they knew Hilda was with us..._ Elc clenched his teeth in frustration. Hilda lived one thousand years waiting for him, telling her to leave for the time being would upset her, possibly refusing to separate from him. _There must be some way..!.._

"Elcrest?" Lisette snapped him out of his thoughts. "You've been staring at the ground for awhile now..." Her worrying voice still lingering. "Are you okay?"

"What? Oh, no no." Elcrest trying to discard her worry. "I was...reflecting back on what you said." He sighed for a moment. "Hilda told me that she crystallized people but she was never the one to elaborate on how bad that...method escalated. It's likely possible that we can't reach our goal the way we are right now. However because of me, she halted her crystallization so you don't need to be worried. But...to be frank..." He paused, sighing again, then looked at Lisette. "I have not the slightest idea where to start."

"..." Lisette looked at him questionably. _Why did I have high expectations from him..._ She mentally sighed. "A-anyway, I want to ask another question." She said. "Why am I with you guys? Does it have to do with me being a witch?" She asked, taking a breather as she held her hand over her chest. "My body still feels...heavy but at the same time...I feel energized..."

"Yes, it does have to do with you being one." Elcrest replied, then remembering that he never told her about his goal. "My goal is to gather the witches so we can fight against our true enemy, God."

"W-what!?" Lisette stammered, trying to keep her shock within her whisper. "But the story-"

"Was made up." Elc cut off. "I didn't subdue god, and another thing to add is that God isn't the supposed holy figure the story makes it seem to be." He closed his eyes for moment and shuddered, even the hero himself seemed terrified by God's power. "It's the complete opposite and it's far more horrifying than what i'm trying to describe it is. It's a menace, a monster with terrifying power. I fought against it, and lost." His voice was filled with dismay.

"Is that why you were in that pond?" She asked.

"Indeed, it was because of my failure that I needed to heal from my 'wounds' from that battle." He explained. "And when I wake up, i'm suppose to do this again, ensuring that this time I won't lose to it."

"O-okay..." Lisette said, pretending she understood so she can take in all what he said. At first, she was hesitant coming with him on this journey. Now, she's downright terrified and believes that going with him wasn't the best idea. Although, she would've been convinced to get on board with them _**if he wasn't so honest about it.**_ Does the hero's tongue know no bounds?

"Stop you two." Hilda interrupted them as all four stopped walking. "Don't come any closer than where we are."

"What's going on?" Elcrest asked. "Did you hear something?"

Hilda summoned her scythe and lifted a nearby bush. Under the bush revealed a metal contraption of sorts with a blinking red light on top. "It's one of Veronica's inventions...how considerate of her to have excuse throw her defenses at us..." Hilda said coldly, she wasn't interest in the mad scientist's games as she brought her scythe down and destroyed the sensor. "When we get closer to her lab, i'll warp us inside." Dispersing her scythe and walked ahead of them. A minute or so had passed before arriving in front of a metal building of sorts. The building wasn't big, a automated steel door can be seen in front of it and small tower next to it had a small glass dome on top of it. Inside the dome, you could see a particular large telescope.

"Stop here, we're close enough." Hilda said, before putting her hands together and chanted something under her breath. Reality started to warp as Elcrest and Lisette felt their feet lift off the ground for a moment before they felt solid ground again. The group were inside a room filled with various contraptions and paper littered all over the floor. A green chalk board with various formulas and calculations can be seen at against one of the walls.

"Who's there!?" An unknown voice said. The voice belonged to a women and it was coming from the nearby room next to them. "Whoever you are, get out! I'll send my Ange-" The woman stopped herself mid-sentence the moment she appeared in the doorway and saw the 4 standing in the middle of the room, looking at her in question.

"Oh! Heeeeey Hilda!" She said, complete change in her attitude upon seeing the time witch. "Long time, no see!"

"Hello Veronica." Hilda tried to keep a straight face. "I see you're holed up in your lab as usual."

"Ooh, don't be like that." The woman, now known as Veronica stepped out of the doorway into the room. Nothing much could be described about her. Her hair had a ginger red color and a side ponytail and wore glasses. She wore a large white lab coat with black leggings and strangely, bird slippers. She looked at the other three. "I see you brought some people over as well, mind introducing yourselves?"

"Dante's the name." Dante said, sounding a little peeved.

"M-my name's Lisette!" Lisette squeaked.

"..." Elcrest said nothing, expecting Veronica to recognize him.

"Oh, talk about rude." Veronica said, failing to recognize him. "I only asked for your name."

Elcrest raised a brow at her. "You...don't recognize me?" He asked.

"Not in the slightest." Veronica said, adjusting her glasses. "Though, you do look very familiar..."

"It's me, Elcrest." He simply said, mentally sighing as he failed to be recognized yet again.

"Oh...Ooohhh!" Veronica realized what his name was. "I see you're doing fine, I presume the contamination is gone?"

"Yes, that's why I woke up." Elcrest said. "I'm healed from the negative emotions."

"Alright, so now you're here...hmmm." Veronica's face tensed a bit as she examine Elcrest's face.

"Um, what are you doing?" He asked.

"Oh, I was wondering why I didn't recognize you at first." Veronica examined him a bit more before leaning back and finding the cause. "You de-aged...so that's why I couldn't recognized you at first." She put her finger over her lip. "Hmm...but how did you manage to look younger..?.."

Veronica then grabbed a device from the nearby table of gadgets. She went back to Elc and steady the device in front of Elcrest. Elc's only response was a raised eyebrow. The device beeped a few times, possibly indicating it was done what it was doing. Veronica pulled back the device and examines the device. "Oh! Now this is interesting..." She remarked. "You have traces of the water qualia with a mix of Hilda's qualia in your qualia's energy..."

"Elcrest has a qualia inside him?" Hilda asked, surprised at her findings. "That...shouldn't be possible..."

"Actually..." Elcrest started. "It's the reason why I have the power to tune a witch's heart."

"That's correct, the Celestial Qualia grants him this power and is the opposing force of The Mother." Veronica explained. "You never told her?"

Elc turned to Hilda. "I'm sorry I didn't tell you when we first traveled together." He said. "I never seem to find a good time to explain so I never said anything about it."

Hilda sighed. "It's fine." She looked at Veronica. "Although, i'm worried about what she said about having your qualia energy having traces of the water and my qualia."

"Right." Elc turned to Veronica again. "Is what you said a bad thing?"

"It depends on how you look at it." She said. "It seems like the water qualia reverted your age somewhat when you were under the stasis."

"But why would it make me look younger?" Elcrest putting his hands on his face as he was feeling his cheeks. In fact, his face felt softer than he expected.

"Who knows, maybe it would've been easier for it to contain you in the stasis." Veronica said, before randomly pulling out what looks like a chicken wing out of her coat and began eating it. "I wish these angel wings would do that, though."

Meanwhile, Dante is coming up with ideas on Hilda's new clothes design to pass the time while the two sort out their business with the mad scientist.

Lisette is both confused and scared at what's going on. At this point in time, she just feels like going home and doesn't know what's going on anymore.

"My age aside." Elcrest said. "You mention that Hilda's time qualia also left some traces too?"

"I had to stop your aging process by stopping your internal clock." Hilda added in. "If I didn't, you wouldn't have recovered."

"That's not all." Veronica said, spitting out a curved bone before taking out another wing and eating it. "Haven't you noticed Elcrest lacks golden eyes?"

"I do?" He asked.

Veronica grabbed a small mirror and showed it to him. True to the fact, he did lack the golden shade in his eyes. His eyes were now back to his original blue color, the same color eyes he had before he obtained the Celestial Qualia. He touched his face again, noticing how he did in fact look younger in the mirror.

"Why..?..." Elc said. "Why did this happen to me?"

"I think I got a theory." Veronica started. "Heavy amount of exposure to the water qualia's power must have repressed most of your qualia's power. Which is why you no longer lack the golden eyes but yet, you can still tune." Spitting out an angel bone, she took another one out her pocket, much to the other three's disgust. "And since it did, you can't use that one attack you had when the qualia was at full power. What was it called? Ragnell Breaker?"

"Ragna Break."

"Close enough." She said. "Anyway, you can use it since you're aware of that attack. You can't use it in succession, you'll pass out if you do and you have to wait another day or so to use it again. I wouldn't recommend it." Spitting out another angel bone, she didn't take out another one. Possibly ran out of them in her coat. "So is that all you guys need from me?"

"Actually..." Elc started. "Because we're gathering the witches again. I was hoping you can tell us where to go first. I don't know the current situation with the witches in this time period."

"Oh, you're doing that again?" Veronica curved her lip. "There's no stopping you is there? I suppose you can go to Lambert. From what I hear from the soldiers that come here to get a report, they're making some program to gather the witches. I don't know the specifics but hey, they have the same goal in mind. I suggest you go there."

"Thank you Veronica." Elcrest said, turning to the four. "We now know what we must do. We go to Lambert and see what this 'program' is."

"Well if that's really all you need, then you can go." Veronica said, before grabbing a remote out of her coat and pressing a few buttons. "I deactivated the defenses so it's safe to walk out."

"Goodbye Veronica." Elcrest said, he exited the lab and the 3 followed him out shortly after.

Once the group was out of here lab. She walk into the other room. In this room, several fallen angels that were deactivated were sitting against the wall. A table with a fryer and several containers of sauce were found on top of it. "Ugh, I really wish they fought my angels outside." She pouted. "It could've really saved time prying wings off these guys."

Outside the lab, once the group had reached a far enough distance, they stopped. Hilda was the first to speak. "I need to find my other subordinates and tell them what happened." Hilda said. "Once we regroup, we will return to our base and tell our forces as well."

"I'm kinda surprised you didn't say anything or call out Veronica on her unwillingness to help you." Elcrest said. "Didn't you hold a grudge against her for that? And why not come with us?"

"I do but I know you would disapprove of it if I did." Hilda sighed. "And if I don't recall my forces, then they will continue to do what I first told them. As much as I want to, I cannot come."

"We will meet again someday." Elcrest said. "I promise."

"Even if it was for a little while." Hilda said, smiling a bit. "It was nice while it lasted."

"Well...this is it." He said. "We'll go our separate ways."

"Indeed, goodbye Elc." She said. "May we meet again another time."

"Goodbye." He said. Hilda and Dante turned and walked in the other direction. Once they were gone Elc turned to Lisette. "Shall we go?"

"Y-yeah..." Lisette hesitantly said. Elcrest noticed how frightened she look. He walked over to her.

"I'm fine..." She lied. Unfortunately, he saw right through her.

Elc sighed. "I know you're afraid. I know that being a witch and being in this situation is frightening for you. Please, trust me on this. I will make sure no harm shall come to you." He tried his best to reassure her and calm her down but isn't entirely sure if what he said wall all that convincing. It was a bit tacky for his taste, even for a person like him who consoles witches to complete a tuning.

"Okay..." Lisette said. "Okay, I'll trust you."

"Alright, we shou-

"But if you let even one finger touch me, I won't forgive you!" Lisette sternly said, suddenly a change in attitude.

"...!" Elcrest was taken back at her sudden change. "O-okay, okay. I promise."

"Good."

"We should head to Lambert." Elc looking towards the direction of the capital. "Veronica said we should go there to start."

"Let's go then!" Lisette said cheerfully, already started walking towards the direction of the capital.

 _What a sudden change in attitude..._ Elc thought, following Lisette and eventually going ahead of her as they made way to the capital. Their journey to gather the witches has just begun.

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A/N: Why did this take longer than I expected.

Anyway, until next time guys! See ya!


	5. Chapter 4: Lambert

I'm Back from dead! I'm sorry for my absence, been caught up in monster hunter hell and then Gunvolt hell so I was too caught up in that to work.

Anywho, without further adieu, here's chapter 4!

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Disclaimer: Stella Glow is not mine, they belong to imagepoch.

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 ** _[Location: Unknown]_**

A town was ablaze. Citizens ran in panic, trying to escape the flames. Some decided to fight the interlopers that were the cause of it. They charged towards a child in a pink hoodie with bunny ears and big white gloves. The child stabbed them with a chainsaw and katana before ripping it out. Blood splattered everywhere while the child laughs and moved to the next victim that dared challenge her. She revved her chainsaw and sliced another person in half, stabbed another, and ripped apart the remaining challengers.

The child giggled as the noise from the chainsaw died down. "That was so easy~" she said. "These idiots think they can stand a chance!"

A grown man, with a very bulky build and blonde hair walked up next the child. A gruff look painted his face as he looked at the child's "work".

"Dorothy," he scolded, "stop messing around. Killing is not our goal here." He furrowed his brow as he continued to look at the corpses littered in front of Dorothy.

"Hilda said I can kill anyone who gets in the way." Dorothy said, "Those idiots were doing just that, so I turned them into mince meat!~" She giggled again.

"In that case, don't let a single one escape!" the man said as he took out a battle axe bigger than him.

"Yeah, yeah! Got it, beardy!" she said, continuing her slaughter.

After a few minutes of killing and capturing, the two managed to seal the town.

"Now, let us wait for Hilda and Dante's arrival." The man said. "They should be here in a few minutes..."

It was taking longer than expected. They stood around for quite a while, fending off the odd person that tried to fight. Dorothy pouted as she grew impatient. She occasionally kicked at the dirt or dragged her weapons back and forth across the ground. The man, simply stared at the sealed town, now with the fire dying out and leaving burned and broken-down buildings. People hid in the buildings still intact or took cover in rubble, hoping that the two wouldn't come closer.

Dorothy's patience had grown thin, and she stomped her foot on the ground. "Ugh, where are those two?" She complained, "I wanna go home already!"

The man quickly glanced at her. "Patience, Dorothy," he said, furrowing his brow once again. "They'll be here soon." Looking at Dorothy again to see she was still pouting, he noticed two figures in the distance. "Speaking of which, here they come." He said, looking at the approaching figures. Dorothy stopped her pouting and turned to look at them as well.

Hilda didn't want to believe what she saw: burning buildings, charred and demolished homes alike, corpses scattered across the town, and people looking on them with fear. After meeting with Elc, it felt like a completely different situation to her now as she began to feel more conscience of the consequences of her actions. Before coming to this now-desolate little town, she worried about what those two would do when they were away. She mentally steeled herself as she approach them.

"Hilda, you arrived," the man said. "Shall we get started with the crystallization?"

"Finally!" Dorothy chimed with renewed energy. "What took you guys so long?"

"Dorothy… Hrodulf… I… " Hilda spoke slowly. "I'm sorry… we were just taking care of a few things… "

The way Hilda spoke to them was setting off a red flag. She never seemed to be so in dismay. She was always so calm and direct, never worrying about anything that gets in her way. Now, her changed mood seemed a bit unsettling.

"Is something the matter, Hilda?" the man, now known as Hrodulf, asked. "You aren't acting as your usual self."

"Hey, Hilda, what's wrong?" Dorothy pitched in, quickly looking over to Dante. "Did edgelord over here mess up the mission?"

Dante clicked his tongue. "Oh, shut up! I didn't mess up anything." He paused and looked away, wondering if he did before turning back to them. "Anyway, that's not the point." He turned to Hilda. "Hey, do you want to tell them?"

How was Hilda supposed to tell them? Everything they did up to this point seemed meaningless, now that Elcrest appeared. With him just being here, and by personal request, they have to stop everything. The goal she and her Harbingers are trying to achieve has been completely changed.

"..." Hilda continued looking at the town, not sure of what to say. "We… can't do this…"

"What!?" Dorothy blurted. "Hilda, what do you mean!?"

"What?" Hrodulf said, admitting some shock in his tone.

"Hey!" Dante shouted. "Don't start barraging her with questions, she's got a lot on her mind."

Hrodulf looked at Hilda. "Is this true? Has something happened?"

"Yes...something did happen," Hilda began. "Do you remember the times I have told you about my time with the hero, Elcrest?"

Dante quickly realized where she was going with this. "Wait, you don't mean-!"

"I do mean what I'm about to say," she said. "That boy we met just a few hours ago, that was him."

"So… the hero has returned," Hrodulf said. "What does this mean for the Harbingers?"

"It means we no longer have to fight a losing battle." Hilda replied. Some hope filled her voice. "We now have a fighting chance."

Dante looked at the relatively destroyed town and started counting the corpses littered in front of them. "One..two...three...four… damn it, Dorothy. Did you even keep anyone alive?"

"Hey!" Dorothy said. "They were the ones who started getting in the way!"

Dante sighed. "Great, this just makes it harder for us. We have even more blood on our hands, and crystallization won't get us out of this one."

"Why can't we just have Hilda sing and move on?" Dorothy said, pouting at Dante. "I did all this work for nothing!"

"You idiot," he yelled. "did you not hear Hilda just a minute ago, or do have dekurins stuffed in your ears? She just said she's no longer doing it!"

"Urgggg…" Dorothy grumbled, before accepting the change of plans in a defeated tone. "Okay, okay… but what now?"

"We head back to Fahrenheit. We tell the rest of the Harbingers, our forces, that we will change accordingly." Hilda explained. "We help Elcrest now, that is what we'll do." She distanced herself from them and stood firmly in front of them. "Any objections?"

The three looked at each other, then Hilda. "Hilda, there is no need to act as such. We swore our lives to you, and we will continue to aid you in every way till the very end." Hrodulf spoke. "Do not fret over the thought of any of us betraying you."

"Yeah! Well spoken, old man!" Dante commented. "As if we'll ever leave you, Hilda."

"Yeah! Yeah!" Dorothy perked up. "I'll never leave you Hilda! You're everything to me!"

Hilda couldn't help but smile at the three. After being together for so long, how could she even think of them betraying her? She saved Dante and Dorothy from disaster a long time ago, so they're practically her children, and Hrodulf especially swore his allegiance to her after that one huge incident, but now's not the time to remember that. Still, she couldn't help but feel like something's off. Not about them. Clearly it wasn't them but rather something else.

Deciding to think about it later, she turned her attention to them.

"Well then, shall we be heading back?" She asked, turning to the north and starting to walk. The trio followed after her. From this day on, the Harbingers will no longer crystallize and terrorize the citizens of Regnant, as they will contribute their efforts to help Elcrest and his quest to finally stop the moon once and for all.

 _ **[Location: Unknown Forest, East of Lambert]**_

Elcrest and Lisette have been walking for about half an hour through the forest, toward the Royal Capital. After meeting with Veronica and going separate ways with Hilda for a time, he and Lisette are told to go there, for a program of sorts to gather the Witches. He wasn't sure why they would need to, but he assumed that they needed as much power as they can to stop Hilda. Though, thanks to him, Hilda is no longer a threat, so he wonders how long until they realize this. Maybe then, he can enlighten them on the looming threat above them. That is, if they aren't so stubborn to believe him.

"Hey, Elcrest," Lisette spoke up. "Don't you think you should go by a different name?"

"Why is that?" he asked. "I think we should be fine, other than be given a few weird glances…"

"Well, I don't think going around as Elcrest will help us," Lisette started. "Imagine some guy named Elcrest, going around telling people that the moon will end humanity in a few weeks." She paused, putting her hands on her hips. "People wouldn't take you seriously."

"E-erm...well…" Elcrest tried to reply. Is that what she initially thought of me?, he thought. He sighed in defeat, "I guess you're right…what do you propose for a name?"

"Hmm…" She paused for a moment. "How about Alto?"

"Alto..?..." Elcrest said, a little bit confused on the name. "Isn't that a clef sign?"

"Huh?" Lisette was also confused, "What's a clef sign?"

"You mean you and the people of this time period don't know what one is?" He asked, wondering how people would forget about the basics of music. "It's a symbol that you use in music sheets and such."

"I don't know, I guess not…" she said. "There's not a lot we know about music other than that witches can sing."

Elcrest sighed. "Alright, let's… just go with Alto. If you what you said is true, then it'll be a good alias."

"Alrighty, now we're set." Lisette said before pausing another time. "What should we do when we get to the capital, though?"

"Hmm…" Elcrest thought for a moment. What should we do when we get there? We know that we need to recruit ourselves into the program...but how exactly? The capital doesn't just let anyone in if it's anything like it was 1000 thousand years ago..." He looked at Lisette for a moment. "I think I got it."

Lisette, wondering why he's looking at her, decides to ask. "Wait, does it have to do something with me?" Realization hit her. "Oh wait, it's because of me being a witch, isn't it?"

"Correct," He said. "Veronica said the program had to do with recruiting witches." He began to explain. "And since you are one, it should be easy for us to get in if we tell them."

"Well alrighty," she said. "Let's go with your plan then."

"Then we're set. Just a few more minutes till we get there." The pair had fallen into silence again as they continued their walk to Lambert, with only the sound of birds chirping and bugs buzzing.

The walls of Lambert stood proud and tall between the town and duo, reaching about 25-30 feet high with towers and gates reaching about 15 feet higher, complete with beige cobblestone and black steel gates. Knights patrolled the top of the wall with even more patrolling the grounds right by it.

The duo just recently came out of the forest much earlier, reconnecting to the main road and now standing just fair distance between the gate, people walked by as they were entering and leaving the city. Elcrest felt a bit nostalgic. Even after one thousand years, things seem to haven't changed much, with the exception of a few buildings here and there being more up to date with this era. Lisette stared in awe, looking at the ever standing walls and tall buildings behind it. She never seen such memorizing structures. They were about as 3 times as tall as the houses in in Mithra.

Elcrest stopped staring and looked towards the gates. By them, knights that appeared to be gatekeepers stood under the arch of the gate. If he could just speak to them about the program, it would help them get started. Then, the gathering of the witches of will be underway.

"Come, Lisette," Elcrest said, beckoning her to move along with him, snapping her out of her stare. "Let's talk to the knights and see if they know where to sign up." Beginning to walk ahead of her.

"O-oh, okay…" She replied, snapping out her stare and shaking her head a bit. She followed after him.

He walked closer to one of the gatekeepers and spoke up. "Excuse me, sir."

The knight turned his attention on him "Yes? What is it?"

"We like to enter a program the capital is holding to gather the witches?"

"A program? Hmm…" The knight thought for moment. "Oh! You mean the Anthem Program?"

"A-ah, yes. That one." Elcrest answered, uncertain if that was the right one. "It's the one where you gather the witches, correct?'

"Why yes," The knight confirmed. "That is the one, I assume you're here to be recruited into it, yes?

"Yes," Elcrest nodded, he then turned to Lisette who was a little behind him. "And this is friend of mine. She is a witch."

"Oh… Oh!" The knight realized. "Excuse me for a moment."

He moved over to the other knight standing at the other end of the gate and exchanged a whisper to him. The other knight nodded and went inside the city. The first knight returned to Elcrest.

"Wait here," he said. "A Royal Guard will take you to the castle."

The duo nodded before walking a fair distance from the gate and stood by the wall.

"That didn't take long." Lisette spoke up. "I thought it would've taken longer…"

"I thought so as well," Elcrest crossed his arms, looking back towards the gate. "Now we wait for the Royal Guard to retrieve us."

"Speaking of them, why do they need us to go to the castle?" Lisette asked.

"My best guess is that we're having an audience with Lambert's king or queen, or perhaps both. Usually you are only escorted to the castle if you have business with the ruler or the other way around." He explained, looking back at Lisette. "Well, you're quite lucky. You get to see the king...queen...both...you know what I mean." He sighed.

"You two!" A voice interrupted the two. "Come with me, and I'll take you to the castle." They turned around and saw a knight with fancier armor with the crest of the Royal Family; a Royal Guard has finally come to escort them to the castle. The two followed and entered the gate into the city.

The city streets were full and busy. People moved up and down the streets. Their voices carried up and down the streets as they gossiped, haggled, and debated. Children were playing around the alleys. Their high laughs and tall tales filled the city. Carts and stands had set up shop on the side of the streets, selling either fruit or trinkets, varying from stand to cart to stand.

Elcrest and Lisette took in their surroundings. The nostalgic feeling once again returned to Elcrest as memories of the capital from his time began flowing. He felt like he was finally home after a long journey. Lisette looked around in wonder, forever memorized by grand city of Lambert.

The two finally made it to the castle entrance after going to the other side of the city's main street and up a few grand staircases. The Royal Guard turned and gestured for them stop, before going ahead of them to entrance where more guards were waiting.

"We have brought the Witch and the boy," The escort said to the one of the entrance guards.

"Alright, bring them in."

And with that, Lisette and Elcrest entered the castle.

 ** _[Lambert Castle, Interior]_**

The central room was quite large. A huge red rug and stands with candles were laid in front of them that lead to another doorway on the other side of the room. The floor tiles were checkered like a chess board, and several balconies could be seen above the other doorway. Green drapes were tied at the ends by large ropes that hang from the ceiling and were tied to an archway above the other doorway.

As grand the room was, the knights and Elcrest were unfazed by it. Lisette, on the other hand, was amazed at the size of the room. Something this big could fit her entire village.

"Keep going," the escorting told them, pointing to the opposite door of the room. "The Audience Chamber is just ahead."

A man who looked like in mid 20's was waiting for them at the archway, he wore a green dress uniform with several badges pinned to the left side of chest, small glasses that look like they don't support his eyesight, and his hands behind his back and was making stern face. Elcrest felt a very serious and strict attitude radiate from him.

"So you have brought them?" The man asked, with a tone ever so serious.

"Just as you ordered Regent Elmar," the Royal Guard said.

"Good. Bring them into the audience chamber." Elmar said, before looking at the two. "Please refer to the Queen as your majesty and do not speak unless you are permitted to." He leaned in a little closer. "You will answer the questions she will give and answer the with the utmost respect, understand?" He sounded more stern at the last part.

"Yes sir." Elcrest nodded though he felt a little off with Elmar's tone and movements.

"O-okay." Lisette stuttered, she was put off by him as well.

Elmar looked at Lisette and squinted. "This goes double for you, witch. Do not take me for a fool who believes you witches aren't deceitful."

"Y-yes, sir…" She nervously replied. Elcrest was a little peeved and twitched his mouth a bit. They continued to the audience chamber.

 _ **[Audience Chamber]**_ (I am sorry that this is essentially copy paste with minor changes, I felt that this dialogue was solid enough)

The audience chamber was surprisingly small compared to the village-sized room they entered from. The red rug from before now ended at a throne, spreading out in a half circle. Green drapes as well hung from the ceiling as well as chandeliers and more balconies were on the sides of the room. At the throne stood a fairly young woman with blonde hair and emerald green eyes. She wore a vanilla white dress and roses hung from her neck, complete with the crown.

So this is the queen... Elcrest thought upon looking at her.

He felt the room become very warm. He could tell Lisette felt the same. She visibly became less nervous upon looking at her as well. Upon reaching a few feet from the queen, Elmar spoke up.

"Now…" He began. "Stand on one knee and bow your head. You will then announce yourselves and say where you are from."

Elcrest obliged and announced his name, remembering that his name is Alto to all but Lisette and Hilda. "My name is Alto, from the village of Mithra."

Lisette did the same but was a little more slow on getting on one knee. "My name is Lisette. I'm also from Mithra."

"You may rise," the queen said, her voice was soft and welcoming. As they rose, she spoke again, "Allow me to introduce myself. My name is Anastasia, Queen Anastasia III."

"So this is the queen," Lisette said. "She looks very beautiful."

Elmar spoke up from behind them. "Witch! You are speaking out of term, wait till you have been granted permission!" His tone was clearly annoyed and forceful.

Lisette flinched. "Y-yes, I'm s-sorry!"

Elc's mouth twitched again at Elmar's stuffiness.

"Elmar," Ana began, a little saddened. "There is no need to be so critical. Look, you have scared her."

"This is a formal audience, and it must be performed properly," he replied.

"Then there can be no objections if I am the one to speak first," she said.

"That is not-" Elmar was cut off.

"Lisette… Alto… " She gave a warm smile. "Thank you for coming." She gestured toward Elmar. "This is Regent Elmar, he and Military Officer Klaus are my most trusted advisors." Anastasia then made a little confused face. "However, it seems Klaus isn't here at the moment. Where could he be?"

"He is returning from a mission as we speak," Elmar said. "He will be here in an hour or so."

"Oh, is that right?" Anastasia said. "Well, i'm sure we can continue without him." She turned back to the two guests, specifically Lisette. "Lisette, I have long awaited for the Water Witch to finally appear."

"O-oh," Lisette said, a little bit confused at the title. "I'm the Water Witch…?"

"Indeed, you are." Ana confirmed. "We haven't seen or had any reports of someone like you nor the Water Qualia for a long time."

Elcrest mentally sweatdropped at this. Oh, right. Cause it was with me the whole… time.

"Do you know what a Qualia is, Lisette?"

Lisette remembered what Elc told her when he first tuned her. "Oh, y-yeah. I sorta do know what one is. It's the reason why i'm a witch isn't it? And it's why me and Alto are here because you're gathering witches who are like me?"

"Correct," Ana said. "If you know this already, then it saves time from explaining."

Elmar, curled his lip, clearly showing signs of doubt of her being a witch. "Though, be that as it may, you have no proof." He turned to Anastasia. "Your Majesty, we must confirm that this girl is indeed a witch." Again, Elc twitched his lip, clearly starting to get annoyed by his doubtfulness and stuffiness.

"C-confirm?" Lisette felt her nerves return in full force.

"Medea, enter!" Elmar called out before turning to doorway.

….You know what, I don't need to describe a half naked women in robes and a blindfold over her eyes somehow making her way to the room. I'm sure you can't miss that detail with her. Anastasia turned to Medea. "Thank you for coming, Medea."

"I had to rush over when I heard our little bluebird was found." Medea said.

"This is Medea, our court musician," Anastasia said. "She is a music specialist."

So wait, they just leave all the music to one person? Not sure if that's a good or bad thing. Elc mentally commented.

Medea turned to Lisette, somehow knowing just where she is. "So this is the girl," Medea chuckled. "What a lovely little thing." Lisette blushed a little at the compliment. "A witch can perform magic through song. Think you can sing for me?" She asked.

"S-sing?" Lisette felt her nerves shake a bit. "I can't… I don't know how…"

"Oh. But you can." Medea reassured. "Close your eyes and dive within. Empty the depths of your heart."

"...A-alright…" She sighed nervously. She joined her hands and closed her eyes. "Close your eyes... Dive within…"

You can do it, Lisette. Listen to her advice, and you'll be fine. Elc thought to her, not wanting to disrupt but still wanted to support her.

Lisette opened her mouth and, suddenly, was singing. Light particles surrounded her, giving her sort of glow as she sang.

"So this is song… how bizarre." Elmar muttered under Lisette's singing.

"This Melody is truly superb, I can feel it reaching out to my heart." Anastasia complimented.

Excellent work Lisette. You managed to pull it off flawlessly.

Well… almost. Medea spoke up again.

"Yes, Lisette... Now, bare yourself-"

She was cut off when the glow started turning purple, a white noise could be heard as Lisette's singing turned raspy. She stopped and started coughing, holding her throat. Elc felt alarms go off in his head, this was something new, something he doesn't know how to fix or know the cause.

"Lisette!" Elc went to her, still alarmed. "Are you alright?"

Lisette was panting as she used Elc as support. "Can't...sing...it hurts…"

"N-no, this can't be..!.." Elc started feel dismayed. If Lisette is a witch, she should be able to sing. But now, why can't she?

"If she were a true witch, she'd be able to sing flawlessly!" Elmar said, clearly annoyed.

Ana turned to Medea. "What are your thoughts, Medea?"

"Well I never heard of a witch who can't sing." She admitted but paused before speaking again. "However, she did sing for a moment. There is no doubt Lisette is a witch."

"Are you sure you're not mistaken?" Elmar said, doubting like always.

Medea felt a little offended at his question but had hint of playfulness in her voice. "Regent, are you suggesting I am lying to Her Majesty the Queen?"

Elmar, realizing what he said, went red. "Hmph. Th-that is enough! You may go!"

Medea giggled at him before looking at Anastasia. "Well then, I guess I'll be taking my leave now, Your Majesty." To which Anastasia nodded as she began to walk off and exited the room. Elcrest felt a little satisfaction at Elmar's response.

"The current situation regarding Lisette must be dealt with…" Ana began. "But now, let us rejoice in the birth of a new witch." She turned to Lisette with a reassuring smile. "Lisette, there is no doubt you are the Water Witch. And… you are the only hope we have to save this Kingdom."

"Mm." Lisette nodded.

"You have my thanks, Lisette." Anastasia said. "Now then... By the names of the Hero Elcrest and Queen Anastasia. I hereby declare the Anthem Program officially launched."

"Your Majesty," Elcrest started. "If I may, what will you do once you gather all the witches?" Elcrest knows they're doing this to stop Hilda, but they never said by what means specifically.

"Oh?" Ana looked a little confused by the question. "Oh! I never told you two what would happen if we did. It is simple. We have the witches perform the ensemble to undo the crystallization." She explained. "Then, we will deal with Hilda, the perpetrator and witch behind it."

"Oh, okay." He replied, a little dumbfounded that he didn't think about them singing to undo crystallization, an unexpected win-win on his part. "Thank you, Your Majesty."

"The pleasure is mine, Alto." She smiled, before looking to Elmar. "Elmar, you will continue to assist me here in Lambert."

"I will do as I am commanded."

"Though, while Klaus isn't here yet," She said, her attention now on Elcrest. "I think he wouldn't have minded if we sent you to 9th Regiment's selection exam."

"Selection Exam?"

"Yes, think of it as a sort of test. The 9th Regiment is an elite group of knights who will help gather the three other witches," she explained. "While Lisette is placed automatically in the roster for being a witch, you, however, must take the exam to prove you are fit to join alongside her." She frowned a bit. "Please understand. Again, the 9th Regiment is an elite group, so you must take it if you wish to join."

"It is alright," Elcrest said. "I think I am capable of proving myself to be with the 9th Regiment."

"Then good luck," Ana said. "Elmar, take him to the training grounds. The next selectiom exam will start in 30 minutes."

"As you wish, Your Majesty." Elmar lead Elcrest out of the room.

"Good Luck, Alto!" Lisette called out, shortly before he was out of the room.

 ** _[Knight Training Grounds]_**

Elcrest was given a wooden sword and met up with other recruits on the grounds. Little dummies were placed to practice with while the Regnant Knights that were going to test them come back from their break. While he practiced on the dummy, others seem to either chat or do some practice before taking breaks in between.

I said before that I needed a little work on my swordplay. He thought back to the fight with the gelatin monsters. I think my problem is that I get carried away too easily, not paying attention to what is happening around me.

It was then he heard two new voices from afar. He heard it approach the grounds.

"Elites? You mean the rejects?"

"Are you referring to yourself, Rusty?"

"Shut up, you know what I mean, tightybald."

Elcrest and all the other recruits stopped and turned to the pair now walking within the area. One was bulky and tall, wearing a suit of armor with only his head exposed. He had a shield and a large metal gauntlet. His head was shaven at the sides and his brown hair was combed back. Like the stuffy regent, he had a stern face.

The other one was not so bulky but he was fit and lean. He had orange long hair, blue eyes, and dark skin. What? You think a person who was possibly born and raised in the desert doesn't have dark skin? Preposterous. Anyway, unlike the first guy, he was wearing a vest with brown pants and combat boots. He had several small bags tied to his thighs and one on his waist and wore braces. He pretty much had a resting bitch face if you know what I mean, like, there's no better way to describe someone's facial expression of not wanting to be there. Anyway, the two by first look seem to be opposites of each other. The range-haired man spoke up as he looked upon the recruits.

"So, these are the ones who will be tested today, huh?" He said. "I can tell none of them don't seem to know what they're in for, eh, Archibald?"

The bulky one, Archibald, replied in a annoyed tone "Stay your tongue, Rusty! You clearly are the one to talk!"

The Archibalds, huh? Good to know they're still around. Elc thought. He remembered that the Archibald family specialized in weapons and served the Royal Family for generations. Even after a thousand years, it seems like they are still around.

Rusty sighed. "I didn't come here to be a babysitter, okay? You, on the other hand would clearly do a good job at it, considering your stuck up ass…" He muttered the last part. "C'mon, let's just get this over with."

The recruits lined up on the opposite end of the training grounds from Rusty and Archibald. Rusty now has taken out wooden knives as he tossed and caught them while they waited to start. Archibald stood forward.

He announced, "The Selection Exam will now begin! Prepare for battle!" He quickly walked back to Rusty as they both got into a battle stance.

"Alright! It's time we got some hack n' slash action!" One of the recruits shouted. The other recruits seem to agree, as they all let out a battle cry and charged toward the two.

Try your hardest against the 9th Regiment.

Mission Start!

One recruit proceeded to target Rusty. "Hraaahhh!" He said as he brought his wooden sword down.

Rusty sidestepped with ease and kicked him away before making several blows with his wooden dagger on his head. The recruit was knocked back a bit before falling back unconcious. Rusty let out an annoyed sigh. "Geez, he's more meat head than you Archie." He looks at Archie who was in the middle of charging at someone.

Archibald proceeds to ready his metal "fist" and brings it up in a uppercut fashion. The recruit yells in pain as he is launched several feet and passes out on the floor. Archibald then yells out. "You think you can carry the honor of the 9th Regiment with such little skill!?" This intimidates the other two recruits, while Elcrest is somewhat impressed on taking them out with such little effort.

"M-monster! Monster!" One of them yelled, but it was tuned out by Archibald as he launched the gauntlet's projectile at him, he screamed before hitting the ground, defeated.

"Hrk..!.." Another knight that Rusty was dealing with muttered, Rusty had kicked him in the stomach and made few blows at his head. This knight was sure to at least get a blow on him. He went forward, sword raised and lazily swung the sword. Rusty just stood aside and watched him miss by several inches before giving up and lying on the ground, accepting his defeat. "Okay...I...give up…"

"Easier for me," Rusty replied. He and Archie turned to Elcrest, who was now the only one standing, wooden sword drawn.

"Hey!" Rusty called out to him, he prepared another wooden knife. "Let's see you dodge this!"

He threw the knife at Elcrest. Just as it was about to hit him, he tilted his head. The knife flew past him. It hit the wall behind him as it made a thunk! and fell to the floor. Elcrest looked at the knife, then Rusty with a deadpan face. Looking him in the eye, he prepared his sword and rushed forward with surprising speed. It caught Rusty's shoulder.

"Wha-..!" Rusty jumped back to avoid the second swing. He felt a stinging pain on his shoulder. His jump gave him enough room to process what just happened, even Archibald was a little shocked to see that someone landed a clean hit on Rusty.

"Heh, not bad kid!" Rusty complimented.

He looked calm but was freaking out over how carelessly he dodged his knife before attacking him with surprising speed. Just who is this guy?

Rusty moved forward with one dagger in hand. He opened up with an upward slash. Much to his annoyance, Elcrest jumped back. Upon landing, Rusty closed the distance between them and prepared his dagger again.

He swung to his left. Thunk! He swung to his right. Thunk! His left again. Thunk! Then finally, to his right, with more force than the last. Swoosh! A miss.

He looked at Elcrest and saw he's perfectly fine. Rusty took a deep breath before letting out an annoyed sigh.

"Look, i'm not saying you should go down already." He pointed the dagger at him. "But you should go down already."

Internally though, he wanted to keep fighting him. He wanted to go all out for once. He wanted to go all out on him.

"Let's see you try then."

"Fine, be that way." Rusty snapped. He turned to Archibald. "Archie! Would be nice if you helped out a little!"

"Right!" He came over to Rusty and readied his fist. "Take this!"

He began to aim his fist, ready to fire the projectile from it. Elcrest realized this and zigzagged to Archibald.

"Hold still!" Archibald complained, still trying to aim.

Elcrest jumped on his fist. He whacked Archibald on the side of the head with his sword. He jumped off. He was hit in the side with a wooden knife. He lost a bit of his footing. He looked at Rusty, who had smug look on his face.

"You didn't forget about me, did ya?" He teased.

A shield came down. Elcrest just barely blocked the shield bash through instinct. He wasn't focusing on the giant knight. He slid back a few feet. He saw Rusty coming at him. Elc moved to his left to get Rusty between him and Archibald.

Rusty began swinging his dagger at Elc. There was more force and speed than before. Elc had to dodge, block, and position all at once. If he let the dagger hit him or Archibald get around Rusty, he'd be in trouble.

He avoided the strikes. Rusty was getting angry. So were his attacks. Archibald was trying to get around Rusty. Elc moved horizontally to keep Rusty between them. Still, he needed to make a move and take down one of them.

Rusty was getting fed up but, at the same time, felt giddy. He continued to dodge everyone one of his strikes so far, and Archibald had only hit him once. If that weren't annoying enough, Elcrest had constantly reposition himself to keep Archibald from getting through. He could just stop and let him through, but he's too pissed to think. Too pissed because he's putting in this much effort to beat him. Too pissed because he's impressed. Too pissed because of Elcrest.

He hit. It landed on the side of the abdomen. "Ha! Gotcha!" Rusty cheered, as Elcrest flinched and halted.

He pulled out another dagger. He struck again. He hit his chest, his arm, his head. He made the each strike to the head stronger than the last. Rusty smirked, he finally did it. He beat this kid who showed up to the exam all high and mighty when that knife missed. He final-

A wooden sword went straight to Rusty's face. He felt intense pain across half of his face. His body shuddered. Right before he was smacked away, he saw Elcrest with a determined expression and an intense stare. His right cheek and forehead were badly bruised.

"It'll take more than a few swings to take me down." Elcrest muttered, enduring the pain.

Rusty fell to the ground. He tried to register what just happened. He quickly collected himself and rushed Elc again. They were about to clash weapons when a voice called out.

"That is enough," it said.

A certain blonde knight in white armor walked in. Lisette walked alongside him.

"Huh!?" Rusty spoke up, looking towards the blonde knight was. "Commander Klaus!? How long were you there?"

"Long enough." He said simply. "It seems the new 9th Regiment member is giving you trouble, isn't he?"

"He is not!" Rusty barked. "I was just about to beat him an- Wait… New 9th Regiment member!?" He pointed at Elcrest. "This kid didn't lose or beat us yet!"

"But he is quite skilled with a sword, isn't he?" Klaus said. "I think he's capable."

"Ugh… Alright. If you say so." Rusty complained, realizing he had to stop the exam now. He muttered to himself, "Just when I was having fun…" He walked out, and Archibald followed after.

Lisette waved at Elcrest, and he waved back. He walked to where she and Klaus were as he lightly touched his bruises.

"You did a great job Alto!" Lisette cheered. "Congrats on getting in."

"Thanks," Elcrest said, still touching his bruise. "Damn, he can hit hard."

"Oh! I can fix it!" Lisette realized, before raising her staff up. The staff gave a brief green glow, and suddenly, the bruises began to disappear and spread relief.

"When did you learn that?" He asked, knowing Lisette has never performed magic before.

"Medea helped me while you were at the exams." Lisette explained. "She said it's like trying to sing but channelling it using the staff I have and telling the magic what to do."

"Oh, well that's great!" Elcrest said. "You can perform magic!"

"Sorry to cut this conversation short," Klaus spoke up. "But we're not quite done yet, you still need to be introduced to your rooms and given your knight's uniform."

"Oh, alright," Elcrest said. "Let us go then."

"Right," Klaus said. He then paused as if he was trying to remember something. "A moment though." He cupped his hand and spoke louder towards the courtyard. "Rusty! Clean up the courtyard and wake up the recruits!"

A distant groaning came in response. With that, Klaus felt satisfied and walked off with Elcrest and Lisette.

 _ **[Knight Barracks]**_

The barracks were pretty simple in design. It had a meeting room, storage, kitchen, and bedrooms. The three stood in what looked seemed to be where all the hallways meet.

"So this is the barracks, huh?" Lisette said, looking down each hallway and staring at the fancy carpet and doors. "It's looks pretty nice."

Elcrest, however, didn't seem fazed by it. He lived here before, and the only difference is some renovations with a new decoration or two.

"Yeah," he said. "It's a fairly nice place."

"Indeed," Klaus said. "The barracks provides for the 9th Regiment's needs and is where we hold our meetings and mission reports." He turned down the hallway with all the doors. "Now... Alto, Lisette, your rooms are the last ones toward the end. Specifically, the second to last on the left for Lisette. And the last door on the right is Alto's." He turned to Elcrest. "I do apologize in advance however, as your room is more or less a storage. Because of the rush of the exams, we have not been able to clear out a proper room for you. While it does provide a bed and a table, there are weapons and crates stored in the room."

"Oh, It's alright I guess…" Elcrest trailed off. "I mean, as long as I have a bed I'll be fine."

"Mm, alright then," Klaus nodded. He turned to Lisette, and in his hands, was a set of clothes. "For you, Lisette, your uniform."

"Oh, my uniform?"Lisette was little confused at this. "I thought I was just here because I'm a witch."

"While your clothes are indeed fashionable, they're not very practical in battle," Klaus said, holding up the robes and armor to Lisette as he urged her to take them. "Here, take these, and put them on when we go on missions."

"O-oh, okay." Lisette took them while also realizing she has to fight too. "Thank you Mr. Klaus."

"No need for the mister part," Klaus said. "It's just Klaus, or Commander Klaus."

"Well, i'll be going to my room then," Lisette said. "And maybe change into these clothes. Cya Alto!" She walked down the hallway before opening then closing the door to her room.

Klaus then handed out Elcrest change of clothes to him. "Here's your uniform, Alto."

"Thank you, Commander." He took them from Klaus's hands.

"Tomorrow, you and Lisette will start your first mission," Klaus said. "I expect you two to wear your uniforms. My apologies, but it's part of the code of conduct."

"I understand." Elcrest began to walk to his room. "I'll be in my room then."

"See you then, Alto," he said.

Klaus waited until he was finally alone in his room. He looked around a bit and paused, as if checking if anyone was there with him. Satisfied, he began muttering quietly to himself. "Don't think you can fool me with your pathetic alias." He spoke in a menacing tone. "I've been at this longer than you. Soon, I will make you pay, ELLLLLL-CREST!"

* * *

And that's a wrap! Sorry that i've been dead for so long but hey! I hope this 7K Chapter makes it up a little, which is just about twice as long as my average ones (4K-5K).

Until next time, See ya!


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